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THE PRACTICE OF JUSTICE OUR ONLY SECURITY FOR THE FUTURE. 



y^-^a REMARKS 



07 



HO^. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, 

OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

IN SUPPORT OF HIS PROPOSED AMENDMENT 
TO THE BILL 



" TO GUARANTY TO CERTAIN STATES WHOSE GOVERNMENTS HAVE 
BEEN USURPED OR OVERTHROWN A REPUBLICAN ^ 
FORM OF GOVERNMENT;" 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 16, 1865. 



WASHINGTON: 
1865. 



/ V (.€> 



REMARKS. 



Th(! House having undrr consideration the bill "tn guar- 
anty to certain Slates whose governments have henn 
usurped or overthrown a republican form of government,'" 
Mr. Kelley moved to amend the hill by inserting after tlie 
words "to enroll all the white male citizens of the United 
States" the words-" and all other malecitizens of the Uni- 
ted States who may bo able to read the constitution 
tliercof," and said : 

Mr. Speaker: Thc-'se are indeed ten-iljle times 
for timid people. Use and wotil no longer serve 
us. Tlie guns traitorously fired upon Fort Sum- 
ter threw us all out of the well- beaten ruts of 
habit, and as the war progresses meti find them- 
selves less and less able to express their political 
views by naming a party or uttering iis shibbo- 
leth. It is no longer safe for any of us to wait till 
the election comes and accept the platfoiin and 
tickets presented by a party. We may have 
served in its ranks for a life-time and find at last — 
costly and painful experience being our guide — 
that to obtain llie ends we had in view we should 
have acted independently of, and in opposition to 
it and its leaders. In seasons like tln.s,an age on 
ages telling, tlie feeblest man in whom there is faith 
or honesty is made to feel that he is not quite 
powerless, that duty is laid on him loo, and that 
the force that is in him ought to be expressed in 
accordance with his own convictions and in a way 
to promote some end seen or hoped for. 

The questions with wliich we have to deal, the 
grave doubts thatcunfound us, the difiicultics that 
environ us, tlie results our action will produce, 
fraught with weal or woe to centuries and con- 
stantly-increasing millions, are such as have rarely 
been confided to a generation. But hajipily we 
are not without guidance. Our situation, though 
novel, does not necessarily cast us upon the field 
of mere experiment. True, we have not specific 
precedents which we may safely follow; but the 
founders of our Governinent gave us, in a few 
brief sentences, laws by which we may extricate 
our generation and country from the horrors that 
involve them, and secure peace broad as our coun- 
try, enduring as its history, and beneficent as 
right and justice and love. 

The organized war power of the rebellion is on 



the eve of overthrow. Itbeloiigsto us to govern 
the territory we have conquered, and the question 
of reconstruction presses itself upon our atten- 
tion; and ourlegislation in this behalf will, though 
it comprise no s[iecific provisions on the subject, 
determine whether guerrilla war shall harass 
communities for long years, or be suppressed in 
a brief lime by punishments administered througii 
courts and law, to marauders for the crimes they 
may Commit under the name of partisan warfare. 
At the close of an international war, the wronged 
but victorious party may justly make two claims: 
indemnity for the past, and security for the fu- 
ture; indemnity for the past in inoney or in ter- 
ritory; security for the future by new treaties, the 
establishment of new boundaries, or the cession 
of military power and the territory upon which 
it dwells. Indemnity for the past we cannot 
hope to obtain. When we shall have punished 
the conspirators who involved the country in this 
sanguinary war, and pardoned the dupes and vic- 
tims who have arrayed themselves or. been forced 
to do battle under their Hag, we shall but have re- 
possessed our ancient territory, reestablished the 
boundaries of our country, restored to our flag 
and Constitution their supremacy over territory 
which was ours, but which the insurgents meant 
to dismember and possess. The other demand 
we may and must successfully make. Security 
for the future is accessible to us, and we must 
demand it; and to obtain it with amplest guaran- 
tees requires the adoption of no new idea, the 
making of no experiment, the entering upon no 
sea of political speculation. Ours would have 
been an era of peace and prosperity, had we and 
our fathers accepted in full faith the great princi- 
ples that impelled their fathers to demand the in- 
dependence of the United Colonies, gave them 
strength in counsel, patience, courage, and long 
endurance in the field, and guided thcin in estab- 
lishing a Constitution which all ages will recog- 
nize as the miracle of the era in which it was 
framed and adopted, and the influence of which 
shall modify and change, and bring into its own 
similitude, the Governments of the world. Had 
we, and the generation that preceded us, accepted 



v\ 



and been guiiled by tbe self-evident truths to 
wbieli I allude, the world would iicvit Imve known 
the martial power of tlic American people, or 
realized the fact that a Government that sils so 
lightly as ours upon the people in peace is so in- 
finitely strong in the terrible season of war. 

Tiie founders of our institutions labored con- 
sciously and reverently in the sight ofGod. They 
knew that they were the creatures of His power, 
and that their work could only be well done by 
being done in the recognition of His attributes, 
and in harmony with the enduring laws of His 
providence. They knew that flis ways were ways 
of pleasantness, and Flis paths the paths of peace; 
and they endeavored to embody His righteous- 
ness and justice in^ the Government thi-y were 
fashioning tor unknown ages, and untold millions 
of men. Their children, in the enjoyment of the 
prosperity thus secured to them, lost their faith 
in tliese great truths, treated them with utter dis- 
regard, violated them, legislated in opposition to 
them, and finally strove to govern the country in 
active hostility to them. And for a little while 
they seeimed to succeed. But at length we have 
been made to feel and know that God's justice 
does not sleep always; and amid the ruins of the 
country and the desolation of our hoines let us 
resolve that we will return to the ancient ways, 
look to Him for guidance, and follow humbly in 
the footste|)S of our wise and pious forefathers; 
and that, as grateful children, we will erect to 
their memory and to that of tlie brave men who 
have died in defense of their work in this the 
grandest of all wars, a monument broad as our 
country, pure as was their wisdom, and enduring 
as Christian civilization. So shall we by our firm- 
ness and equity exalt the humble, restrain the 
rajiacious and arrogant, and bind the people to 
each other by the manifold cords of common sym- 
patliies and interest, and to the Government by 
the gratitude due to a just and generousguardian. 

But, Mr. Speaker, I heargentlemen inquire how 
this is to be done. The process is simple, easy, 
and inviting: it is by accejiting in child-like faith, 
and executing with firm and steady purpose three 
or four of the simple dogmas which the founders 
of our Government proclaimed to the world, and 
which, alas! too often with hypocritical lip ser- 
vice, are professed by all Americans, even those 
who are now striving, through blood, and car- 
nage, and devastation, to found a broad empire, 
the corner-stone of which was to be human sla- 
very. 

In announcing the reasons which impelled the 
colonies to a separation from the mother country, 
the American people declared that "a decent re- 
spect to the opinions of mankind" required "a 
declaration of the causes which impelled them to 
the separation;" and in assigning those causes 
announced a few general propositions, embody- 
ing eternal and ever-operating principles, among 
which were. 

First, that " all men are created equal, are en- 
dowed with certain inalienable rights," and that 
"among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness;" 

Second, that "to insure these rights, Govern- 
menla are instituted among men;" 



Third, that "Governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed;" 

Fourth, that " whenever any form of govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends, it is the 
right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to 
institute a new Government, laying its foundations 
on such principles and organizing its powers in 
such form as to them shall seem most likely to 
effect their safety and happiness." And in these 
four propositions we have an all-sufficient guide 
to enduring peace and prosperity. If in the legis- 
lation we propose we regard these self-evident 
truths, our posterity shall not only enjoy peace, 
but teach the world the way to universal freedom; 
but if we fail to regard them, God alone in His infi- 
nite wisdom knows what years of agitation, war, 
and misery we may entail on posterity, and 
whether the overthrow of our Government, the 
division of our country, and all the ills thus en- 
tailed on mankind may not be justly chargeable 
to us. 

The tables of the census of 18G0 exhibiting the 
population of the eleven insurgent States, show 
that it numbered, and was divided as follows: 



States. 


Wlilte 
population. 


Colored pop- 
ulation, slave 
and free, inclu- 
diii;; Indians. 




526.271 
324,143 
77,747 
591,550 
357,456 
353.901 
629.942 
291,300 
826,722 
420,691 
1,047,299 


436.930 
111,337 
62.077 
465,736 
350,546 
437,404 
362.680 
412,408 
283,079 
183,324 
549,019 




Floridii 


Louisiana 








1'exas 






5,447,222 


3,666,110 



This table, as will be observed, embraces the 
whole of Virginia as she was in 18G0; and as I 
have not the means of distinguishing the propor- 
tion of her population that is embraced in the new 
State of West Virginia, I permit it to stand as it 
is. The new Stale is in the Union; her citizens 
never assented to the ordinance of secession; they 
have provided for the extinguishment of slavery 
within her limits; and my remarks, save in the 
general scope in which they may be applicable to 
any or all of the States of the Union, will not be 
understood as applying to her. It is of the ter- 
ritory for which it is the duty of Congress to pro- 
vide governments that I speak. I should also 
call attention to the fact that the Superintendent 
of the Census includes the few Indians that re- 
mained in some of these States in the column of 
white inhabitants. Their number is not impor- 
tant; but it certainly should not be so stated as to 
create the impression that they enjoyed the rights 
or performed (he duties of citizens. How unfair 
this classification is will appear from the fact that 
the following section from the Code of Tennessee 
of 1858, section 3,8J8, indicates very fairly the 
position they held under the legislation of each 
and all the above-named States: 

"A negro, mulatto, Indian, or person of mixed blood, 



/£f \ 



5 



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descended from negro or Indian ancestors, totlie third gen- 
eration incliii^ive, thoiigli one iincestor of encli generailon 
may liave liccii a white person, whether bond or free, is 
incapahle of licing a witness in any case, civil or critninai, 
except for or against each other." 

Correcting the error of the Superintendent of 
tlie Census, I liave enumerated tlie Indians with 
tlie people to whose fate the legislation of those 
States assigned them. It will be perceived that 
wlien that census was taken the white population 
numbered 5,447,222, and the colored population 
3,66G,110. 

It thus appears that the colored people were 
considerably more than two fifths of the whole 
population of the insurgent States; and that while 
we have professed to believe that their right to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was in- 
alienable — could not be alienated or relinquished 
by them, nor taken away by others — we have ig- 
nored their humanity, and denied tiiem the en- 
joyment of any single political right. 

That, wliile we have professed to believe that 
governments are instituted among men to secure 
their rights, the history of our country for the 
last fifty years proves that the wliole power and 
constant labor of our Government have been ex- 
erted to prevent the possibility of two fifths of 
the people of more than half our country ever 
attaining the enjoyment of political, civil, or so- 
cial rights. 

That, while we have professed to believe that 
all Governments derive their just powers from 
the consent of the governed, we have punished 
with ignominy and stripes and imprisonment and 
death tlie men who had the temerity to assert that 
it was wrong to deny to two fifths of the people 
i)f a country, and, as in the case of South Caro- 
lina and Mississippi, a large majority of the people 
of the State, the right even to petition for redress 
of grievance. 

And while we have been swift (o assure, in 
terms of warmest sympathy, and sometimes with 
active aid, any oppressed and revolting people 
beyond the seas that we believed it to be the right 
and duty of such people, " whenever any form of 
Government becomes destructive of the ends" 
above indicated," to alter or abolish it, and to insti- 
tute a new Government, laying its foundations on 
such principles, and organizing its powers in such 
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
their safety and happiness," we have, even to the 
boundaries of the lakes and to the far Pacific 
sliores, stood pledged and ready to lay down our 
lives in the suppression of any attempt these 
Americans might make to carry into effect this 
cardinal doctrine of our professed political faith. 
Is,it any wonder that God, seeing millions of His 
people thus trampled on, oppressed , outraged, and 
made voiceless by those whose fathers had ]ilaced 
their feet in His ways, and whose iips never 
wearied in beseeching His guidance and care, 
.should fill the oppressors with madness and o|ien 
through their blood and agony a way for the 
deliverance of their long-sulfering victims.' 

But, Mr. Speaker, it is asked, who are these 
people? They are the laboring masses of ilie 
South — the field hand, the house servant, the me- 
chanic, the artisan, the engineer of that region. 



Their sinewy arms have felled the forest, opened 
the farm and the plantation, made the road, the 
canal, the railroad. It was by the sweat of their 
brow that the sunny South was made to bloom; 
it is they whose labor has quickened the wheels 
of commerce and swelled the accumulating wealth 
of the world. Upon their brawny shoulders rested 
the social fiibric of the South , and an arrogant aris- 
tocracy, that strove to dictate morals to tlie world, 
boasted that one product of their toil was a king 
to whom peoples and Governments must bow. 
Most of them are ignorant and degraded; but that 
cannot be mentioned to their disgrace or dispar- 
agement. Not they nor their ancestors enacted 
the laws which made it a felony to enable them to 
read tiie Constitution and the laws of their coun- 
try, or the Book of Life through which their fairer 
brethren hope for salvation. Dumb and voiceless 
most of them are; but let not want of intellectual 
power be ascribed to them as a race, in view of 
the wit, humor, sarcasm, and pathos, of the learn- 
ing, logical powji-r, and scientific attainments, of 
a Douglass, a Garnet, a Remond, a Brown, a 
Sella Marlin,aWil I iam Craft, and SCO res of others, 
who, evading the bloodhound and his master in 
the slave-liunt, have made their way to lands 
where the teachings of Christ are regarded and the 
brotherhood of man is not wholly denied. Others 
of tliem are and have been free, at least so far as to 
be able to acquire property and send their chil- 
dren to foreign lands for culture. Let some such 
speak for themselves. In the ]ietition of the col- 
ored citizens of Louisiana to the President and 
Congress of the United States, they respectfully 
submit: 

"That they are natives of Louisiana and citizens of the 
United States; that they are loyal citizens, sincerely at- 
tached to the coinitry and the Constitution, and ardently 
desire the maintenance of the national unity, for wliicli 
they are ready to sacrifice their fortunes and their lives. 

" That a large portion of lliem are owners of real estate , 
and all of them are owners of personal property; that many 
of them are engaged in the pursuits of commerce and in- 
dustry, while others are employed as artisans in various 
trades ; that they are all litted to enjoy the privileges and 
immunities belonging to the condition of citizens of the 
United States, and among them may be found many of , 
the descendants of those men whom the illustrious Jack- 
son styled his 'fellow-citizens' when he called upon them 
to lake up arms to repel the enemies of the country. 

" Your petitioners I urtlier respectfully represent that over 
and above the right which, in the language of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, ihey possess to liberty and the pur- 
suit of happiness, they are supported hy the opinion of just 
and loyal men, especially by that of lion. Edward Ba"tes, 
Attorney General, in the claim to the right of enjoying the 
privileges and immunities pertaining to the condition of 
citizens of the United States; and, fo support the legiti- 
macy of this claim, they believe it simply necessary to 
submit to your Excellency, an<l to the honorable Congress, 
the follovving consid'eraiions, which they beg of you to 
weigh in the balance of law and justice. Notwithstand- 
ing their forefathers served in the Army of the United 
States, in 1814-15, and aided in re|)eliing i'rom the soil of 
Fjouisiana a liauglity enemy, over-conlident of success, yet 
they and their descendants have ever since, and until the 
era of the pres(uit rebellion, been estranged and even re- 
pulsed, excluded from all franchises, even the smallest, when 
their brave forefathers offered their bosoms to the enemy 
to preserve the territorial integrity of the Republic ! Dur- 
ing this period of lorty nine years they have never ceased 
to be peaceable citizens, paying their taxes on an assess- 
metit of more than filteen million dollars ! 

" At the call of General Kntler they hastened to rallv under 
the banner of the Union and liberty; they have spilled their 
blood, and are still pouring it out for tlie maintenance of 



6 



the Constitution of the United Slatos ; in a wnid, ihpy arc 
soldiers of the Union, nnil lliey will defend it so long aa 
Iheir hands have strenyth to liold a inuslii't. 

" VVliile General Banks was at the siege of Port Hudson 
and the eity llireatened l)y llie enemy, lii? Excellency Gov- 
crnor Slupley called for troops f >r the defense of tlie eity, 
and they were foremost in responding to the call, liaving 
raised the first regiment in the short space of forty-eight 
hours. 

'■ In consideration of this fact, as true and asclearas tlie 
sun wliicli lights this great continent, in consideration of 
the services already performed and still to he rendered by 
them to ilieireommon country, tliey humbly beseech your 
Excellency and Congress to cast your eyes upon a loyal 
population, awaiting with confidence and dignity the 
proclamation of those inalienable rights which belong to 
the condition of citizens of the great Amejican Ilepub- 
lic. 

" Theirs is hut a feeble voice claiming attention in the 
midst of the grave questions raised by this terrible con- 
(Uct ; yet, conlident of the justice whicli guides the action 
(if the Government, they hav(.' no hcsilatiou in speaking 
what is prompted by their liearts : ' We are men ; treat us 
;is such.' " 

This petition, wliicli it is within my knowledge 
was prepared by one of tlie |iiosciihed race, asks 
only for wiitit the fathers of our country intended 
they should enjoy. They discoven^d in the Africo- 
Ameiican the attributes and infirmities of their 
own nature, and in organizing governments, local 
or general, made no invidious distinction between 
him and his fellow-men. Under the Articles of 
Confederation, and at the lime of the adoption 
of the Constitution of the United States, and long 
subsequetit thereto, the free colored man was with 
their consent a citizen and a voter. Our fathers 
meant that he should be so. Their faith in the 
great cardinal maxims they enunciated was un- 
doubting; and they embodied it without mental 
reservation when they gave form and action to 
our Government. No one v/ho has studied the 
history of that period doubts tliat they regarded 
slavery as transitory and evanescent. Neither 
the word " slave," nor any synonym for it, was 
given place in the Constitution. Wc know by 
the oft-quoted remark of Mr. Madison that it was 
purposely excluded that the future people of the 
country might never be reminded by that instru- 
ment that so odious a condition had ever existed 
among the people of the United States. Thatin- 
strument nowliere contemplates any discrimina- 
tion in reference to political or personal rights on 
the ground of color, in defining the rightsguar- 
antied by the Constitution they are never limited 
to the white population, but the word "jieople" 
is used without qualification. When in that in- 
strument its framers alluded to those who filled 
the anomalous, and, as they believed, temporary 
position of slaves, they spoke of " persons lield 
to service," and in the three-fifths clause of" all 
other persons." They confided all power to " the 
people," and provided amply, as they believed, 
ibr the protection of the whoh; peofile. Thus in 
the second section of article one, thi'y provided as 
follows for the organization of the House of Rep- 
resentatives: 

"The House of Representatives shall bo composed of 
mendiers chosen every second year by the people of the 
several States, and the electors in eaeli Slate shall have 
the (|ualifications requisite for electors of the most numer- 
ous branch of the State Legislature." 

And in the amendments of the Constitution we 



see how careful they were at a later day to guara 
the rights of the people: 

"Art. 1. Congress shall make no law respecting an es- 
tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of rh« press; 
or the right uf the jicojilc peaceably lo assemble and to pe- 
tition the Government lor a redress of griev.uices. 

"AllT. 2. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the 
security of a free State, the right oi' the people lo keep and 
bear arms shall not be infringed." 

"Art. 4. Tlie right of iA,e;)oo///c lobe secure in their per- 
sons, houses, papers, and eficets, against unreasonable 
searches and seizures, shall not be viol.ued." 

"AiiT. 9. The enumeration ill the Coiistiintion of certain 
rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage ollicrs re- 
tained by the people. 

"Art. 10. The powersiiot delegated lo the United Slates 
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it toilie States, are re- 
served to the Slates respectively, or to the people." 

]; has, I know, been fashional)Ie to deny that 
the framers of the Constitution intended to em- 
brace colored persons when they used the word 
" peofile;" and it is still asserted by some that 
it was used with a mental reservation broad and 
elFeclive enough to exclude ihem; but the Jour- 
nala of the Convention and the general history 
of the times abound in contradictions of this false 
and mischievous theory, the source of all our pres- 
ent woes. A brief review of contemporaneous 
events ought to put this question at rest forever. 

The Congress of the Confederation was in ses- 
sion on the 25th of June, 1778, the fourth of the 
Articles of Confederation being under considera- 
tion. The terms of the article as proposed were 
that " the free inhabitants of each of these States 
(paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice 
excepted) shall be entitled to all privile-res and 
inimuiiilies of iVee citizens in the several States." 
We learn by the Journal that " the delegates from 
South Carolina, being called on, moved the fol- 
lowing amendment in behalf of their State: in 
article four, between tlie words ' free inhabitants' 
insert ' white.' " How was this proposition, 
identical with that now made lo us, received by 
the sages there and then assembled .' Eleven States 
voted on the question. Two, South Carolitia be- 
ing one of them, sustained ilie proposition; the 
vote of one State was divided; and eight, affirm- 
ing the colored man's ri;;ht to the privileges of 
citizenship, voted " no," and the jiroposition was 
thus negatived. South Carolina — then, as she has 
ever been, jiersistent in mischief — further moved, 
through her delegates, to amend by inserting after 
the words " the several States" the words "ac- 
cording to the law of such States respectively for 
the government of their own free while inhabit- 
ants." This proposition was also negatived by 
the same decisive vote, as appears by the Journal 
of the Congress of the Confederation, volume 
four, pages 379, 380. What two States did iiot 
vote upon the question the Journal does not in- 
dicate; but when it is remembered that Pennsyl- 
vania li;d her sisters in the great work of emanci- 
pation, and that it was not till nearly two )'ears 
after that date lliat she abolished slavery, it will 
be seen that it was by a vote of slaveholders rep- 
resenting slave States, that the proposition lo deny 
citizenship, its rights, privileges, and immunities, 
to the colored people was so em[)hatically re- 
jected. The delegates could not, with propriety, 
have voted otherwise. To have done so, they 



/<?^ 



would have agreed that, in violation of all comity, 
wliile they secured the rights of citizenship within 
the limits of their Slate lo citizens of others, those 
other States mi^lu deny them to citizens of their 
own. They did not probably foresee that South 
Carolina might cast the shipwrecked citizen of 
another Stale who had been thrown upon her 
shores into a jail, because of the decree of the 
Almighty, who had given him a complexion not 
agreeable to the eyes of iier people, and in default 
of the ability to pay jail fees thus unwillingly in- 
curred, doom him and his posterity to the woes 
of perpetual slavery; but they did see that such 
proposition opened the door to inequality, and 
possibly to oppression, and tliey resisted it with 
a firmness and forecast which their posterity have 
failed to honor or emulate. 

Again, they could not have consistently voted 
for such a proposition; for, by the constitutions 
of their own States, free colored men were voters, 
and in the enjoyment of the rights of citizen- 
ship. Not only then, but in 1789, at the time 
of the adoption of the Constitution of the United 
States, there was but one State whose constitution 
distinguished in this respect against the colored 
man. This odious distinction, so fraught with 
unforeseen but terrible consequences, marred the 
constitution of South Carolina alone at the latter 
date. 
The constitution of Massachusetts provided that 
" Every male poison (li.'ingtvveiity-onc years of age, and 
residi'iit in any particular town in tliis Cnintnonwealtii for 
tlic space ol' one year next preceding) liaving a freehold 
estate within tlie same town of'tiie arniual income of three 
pounds, or any estate of the value of sixty pounds, shall 
have a right lo vote in ihe choice of a representative or 
representalives lor the said town." 

Rhode Island had adopted no constitution, but 
continued under colonial charter, which provided 
for the election of members of the General As- 
sembly by " the major part of the freemen of the 
respective towns or places." 

Connecticutalso continued under colonial char- 
ter, according to which the qualifications of an 
elector were" maturity in years, quiet and peace- 
able behavior, a civil conversation, and forty shil- 
lings freehold, or forty pounds personal estate." 

The constitution of IN^ew York provided that — 

"Every mah; inhabitant of full age, who shall liavo 
personally resided within one of the counties of this State 
lor six nionllis immediately preceding the day of election, 
shall, at such election, be entitled to vote for representa 
lives of the said county in the Assembly, if, during the time 
aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder possessing a free- 
hold of the value of twenty pounds within the said county, 
or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of 
forty shillings, and have rated and actually paid taxes to 
this State." 

The constitution of New Jersey contained this 
provision: 

" All inhabitants of this colony of full age, whoare worlli 
fifty pounds proclamation money clear estate in the same, 
and have re.-ided within the county In which they claim to 
vote for twelve months immediately preceding the election, 
shall be entitled to vote foV representatives in Oouncil aTid 
Assembly, and also for all other public olMcers that shall be 
elected by the people of the county at large." 

The constitution of Pennsylvania provided 
that — 

" Every freeman of the full age of twenty-one years, hav- 
ing resided in this State for the space of one whole year 
next before the day of election for representatives, and paid 



public taxes during that time, shall enjoy the right of an 
elector; provided always that sons of freeholders of the 
age of twenty-one years shall be entitled lo vote although 
they have not paid taxes." 

The constitution of Delaware declared that — 

"The right of suffrage in the election for members of 

both houses shall remain as exercised by law at present." 

The declaration of rights, prefixed to the con- 
stitution, contained the following: 

'^ Every freeman, having sufficient evidence of perma- 
nent common interest with and attachment to the commu- 
nity, hath a right of suffrage." 

The constitution of Maryland provides that — 
" All freemen, above twenty-one years of age, having a 
freehold of fifty acres of land in the county in which they 
ofier to vote, and residnig therein, and all freemen having 
property iu this State above the value of thirty pounds cur- 
rent money, and liaving resided in the county in which they 
offer lo vote one whole year next preceding llie election, 
shall have a right of suffrage in the election of delegates for 
such county." 

The constitution of Virginia contained a pro- 
vision that — 

"'J'he right of suffrage in the election of members for 
both houses shall remain as exercised at present." 

The declaration of rights, prefixed to the con- 
stitution, contained the following: 

•' All men having suflicient evidence of permanent com- 
mon interest with and altaehment lo the community have 
the right of suffrage." 

The constitution of North Carolina provided 
that— 

"All freemen of the age of twenty-one years, who have 
been inhabitants of any one county within the State twelve 
months immediately preceding the day of any election, and 
shall have paid public taxes, shall be entitled to vote for 
members of the House of Commons lor the county in which 
they reside." 

The constitution of Georgia declared that — 
"The electors of the members of both branches of the 
Geneial Assembly shall bo citizens and inhabitants of this 
State, and sliall have attained to the age of twenty-one 
years, and have paid tax for the year preceding the elec- 
tion, and shall have resided six months within the county." 
The constitution of South Carolina [irovided 
that — 

"The qnalifi<'ations of an elector shall be, every free 
while man, and no other (lerson, who acknowledges the be- 
ing of a God, and believes in a future slate of rewards and 
punishments, and who has attained the age of one and 
iwcTity years, and Jiatli been an inhabitant and resident in 
this State for the space of one whole year before the day 
appointed for the election he offers to give his vote at, and 
hath a freehold at least of filly acres of land or a town lot, 
and hath been legally seized and possessed of the same at 
least SIX months previous to such election, or hath paid a 
tax the preceding year, or was taxable the present year, at 
least six months previous to the said election, in a sum 
equal lo the tax on filty acres of land, to the support of this 
government, shall be a person qualified to vote lor, and shall 
be capable of electing, a representative or representatives." 

But, Mr. Speaker, to evade the force of this 
overwhelming array of facts, the [)ro-slavery De- 
mocracy and purblind conservatism of the coun- 
try have suggested that the thought of the black 
man was tiot present in the minds of those who 
fashioned these constitutions and bills of rights; 
that they could not have imagined that the freed 
slave or his posterity would have the audacity to 
ask that they should be recognized as freemen 
and citizens of our country; and with unblushing 
effrontery they have made the ignorant believe 
that the Government was organized, notforman- 



8 



kind, but for the wliite man alone. The falsity 
of ihtsf suggestions is fully exposed by the fact 
that Soutli Carolina made the disiinctiou, and in 
the Congress of the Confederation pressed it on 
the attention of the whole country, but will be 
still more amply demonstrated by tlie facts I shall 
liereafter cite. In every State but South Caro- 
lina, and possibly Virginia and Delaware, in 
which the right of sudVage was regulated by 
statute, and not by constitutional provision, the 
free colored man at that time was a voter. In no 
State constitution except that of South Carolina, 
which was replete with aristocratic provisions, 
was the right of suffrage limited by express terms 
to the white man; consequently but few, if any, 
of the members of the Convention that framed the 
Constitution of the United States could have failed 
to meet him as a voter at the polls. I remember 
well to have seen negroes at the polls exercising 
the right of suffrage in Pennsylvania, where they 
enjoyed it from the foundation of the government 
to the year 1838, when the growing influence of 
the increasing slave power of the country, op- 
erating on the political ambition of those whom 
the people had charged with no such duty, de- 
prived colored men of this right by following the 
example of South Carolina and inserting the word 
"white" in the constitution of the State. Similar 
action restricted their right in New York, making 
it dependent on a i)roperty qualification, and de- 
prived them of it in New Jersey and other States 
now free. To her praise be it spoken, except in 
Connecticut, which Slate, in 1817, in complaisance 
to South Carolina, inserted the word " white" in 
her constitution, they still enjoy the right through- 
out New England, not as a concession from men 
of modern days, but hereditarily, from the times 
in wliicli the foundations of the Government were 
laid. Gentlemen around me from the State of 
Maryland doubtless well remember the days when 
the free colored man voted in their State. It was 
only in 1833 that he was deprived of that inesti- 
mable right by constitutional amendment within 
her limits. That the negro enjoyed this right in 
North Carolina until he was deprived of it in the 
same way is proven by the following extract from 
the opinion of Judge Gaston, of that State, in the 
State vs. Manuel, which was decided in 1838, and 
may be found in 4 Devereux and Battle's North 
Carolina Reports, page 25: 

" It has been said that boCore our Revolution free per- 
sons 01' color (lid not exorcise thcrijiht ol" voting for mem- 
bers of ilio colonial Lcyislaluro. Ilinv this may have been 
it would be difficult at this time to ascertain. Ills certain, 
however, that very few, if any, could have claimed the 
right of suffrage for a reason of a very different character 
from the one supposed. The principle of freetiokl suffrage 
peems to have been brought over from England with tlie 
first colonists, and to have been preserved almost invaria- 
bly in the colony ever afterward." * * * " 'J"ho 
v«ry Congress "which framed our constitution [the State 
con'stiiunon of 1776] was chosen by freeholders. 'J'liat 
constitution extended tlie elective franchise to every free- 
man who had arrived at the age of twenty-one and paid a 
public ta.v ; and it is a matter of wUvcrsal notoriety that 
under it free persons, wUlioid regard to color, claimed atiil 
exercised the franchise until it ivas taUcii from free men of 
color a few years since by our amended constitulion." 

Tennessee was admitted to (he Union in 179G. 
Her constitution [n'ovided as follows: 
" Every freeman of the age of twenty-one years and 



upward, possessing a freehold jii the county wherein he 
may tote, and being an inhabitant of this State, and every 
/>-ccm«)i being an inhabitant of anyone county in the State 
six months immediately preceding the day of election, shall 
be entitled to vote for members of the General Assembly for 
the county in which he may reside." 

This constitution, as will be seen, endured for 
forty years, during which the free colored men 
of the State enjoyed their political rights, and 
exercised, as will appear, a powerful and salutary 
influence upon public opinion and the course of 
legislation. 

In 1834, a convention to revise that constitu- 
tion assembled at Nashville, and, accepting the 
suggestion of South Carolina, by a vote of 33 to 23 
limited the suffrage to free white men. During 
those forty years free negroes had enjoyed a right 
which made them a power; and no chapter in our 
history better illustrates the value of this ]>ower 
to both races, or how certainly great wrongs of 
this kind reactand punish the wrong-doer. Cave 
Johnson is a name well known throughout the 
country and honored in Tennessee; and it was 
his boast that the free men of color gave his ser- 
vices to the country by electing him to Congress. 
On page 1305 of the Congressional Globe for the 
session of 1853-54, will be found the following 
statement of Hon. John Pettit, of Indiana, made 
in the United States Senate, May 25, 1854, while 
discussing the suffrage clause of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill: 

<• Many of the States have conferred this right [of suf- 
frage] upon Indians, and many, both North and South, 
have conl'erred it upon freenegroes without property. Old 
Cave Johnson, of 'I'einiessoe, an lionored and respectable 
gentleman, formerly Postniaster General, and for a long 
lime a member of the other House, told me with his own 
lips thai the first time he was elected to Congress from 
Tennessee (in 1828) il was by the votes of free negroes ; and 
he told me how. Free negroes in Tennessee were then 
allowed by the constitution of the State to vote ; and he 
was an iron manufacturer, and had a large number of free 
negroes as well as slaves in his employ. I well recollect 
the number he stated. One l)undri:d and forty-four free 
negroes in his employ went to the ballot-box and elected 
him to Congress the first time he was elected." 

Few will now deny that slavery is a curse alike 
to the masterand the servile race. None will deny 
that slavery has been a curse to that State in view 
of the vastmineral resources of Tennessee; herfine 
natural sites for great cities; her capacity to feed, 
house, clothe, educate, and profitably employ 
free laborers; her recent history, the abundant 
source of future song and story; the pious and 
patriotic endurance of the brave and God-fearing 
people of the eastern section of the State, and the 
perfect abandon with which their more aristo- 
cratic fellow-citizens of the western section of the 
State espoused the causa of the rebellion; the 
cruelties inflicted on the loyal people by the trai- 
tors; the horrors and the heroism of the border 
warfare that has desolated her fair fields, and the 
rancorous feuds and intense hatreds, v/hicli the 
grave can only extinguish, that have been en- 
gendered among her people by the war. And who, 
if the apparently well-founded tradition be true, 
that a proposition to incorporate in her constitu- 
tion of 17% a clause prohibiting slavery was lost 
by a majority of one vote, will estimate the evil 
done by the man who thus decided that moment- 
ous question? 



9 



/<^f 



Tlie history of slavery in Tennessee, and the 
determined resistance so long made apjainst its 
struggles for supremacy, will, I am sure, justify 
!i brief digression. There were in 171)6, it, is said, 
considerably less than five thousand slaves within 
lier limits, who had been brought tiiither by the 
earlier settlers of what was then known as the 
territory south of the Ohio. The influence of the 
colored citizens is traceable throughout her earlier 
liistory. So early as 1801, liefore she had existed 
five years as a State, tlie Legislature conferred the 
power of emancipation upon the county courts of 
the State by an act, the preamble to wliich sigtiifi- 
cantly says: 

"Whereas tlie mniiber of petitions presented to this 
Lealsiature piayiufj Hit; emancipaliiin of slaves, not only 
lends to involve liie tjtale in great evils, but is also pro- 
ductive of great expense." 

In 1812, the introduction of slaves into the State 
for sale was prohibited bylaw. Yetin the twenty 
years between 1790 and 1810, by the power of 
emigration from slave States and natural increase, 
the number swelled from less than four thousand 
to upward of forty-four thousand. Tliis rapid in- 
crease of slave population alarmed the people, and 
emancipation societies were organized in dillerent 
parts of the State. Extracts froni an address de- 
livered on the 17ih of August, 1816, by request 
of one of these societies, and repeated with its ap- 
jiroval on the 1st of January, 1817, and which, 
having been printed, not anonymously, but by 
Heiskell & Brown, was largely distributed by the 
society, are before me. It proposes to show, 

First, the oliject or design of the society. 

Second, that the ]3rinciples of slavery are in- 
consistent Vi'ith the laws of nalureand revelation. 

Tliird, some of its evils, both moral and polit- 
ical. 

Fourth, that no solid objections lie againstgrad- 
ual emancipation. 

To sliow the freedorii with which the subject 
was then discussed, 1 otTera brief extract or two. 
Ill those days the people of Ameiica had not 
learned, nor did they yet pretend to believe, that 
the Constitution of the United States denied them 
the right to think of the condition of any classof 
sulfermg people, or made it a crime to utter their 
convictions and their philanthropic emotions. 
Thus this address to the people of Tennessee 
says: 

"Slavi!ry, as it e.\ists among us, gives a master a property 
in the slaves and theirdescendantsasniuchaslavvcangivi; 
a |iropcrty in land, cattle, goods, and chattels of any kind, 
lo 1)0 iistd at the discretion of tlie master, or to be sold to 
whom, when, and where he pleases, with the descendants 
fon-vcr. It is tine, if the master take away the life of the 
slavi' under certain circumstances, our laws pronounce it 
rniiKh r. But the laws leave it in the power of the master 
to destroy his life by a thousand acts of lingering cruelly. 
He may starve him to deatli by degrees, or he may whip 
him to death if he only take long enough time, or he may 
so unite the rigors of hard labor, stinted diet, and exposure 
as to shorten life. The laws watch against sudden murder, 
as if to leave the lorlorn wretches exposed to any slow 
death that the cruelty and malignant passions of a savage 
may dictate. Nor is there any restraint but a sense of pe- 
cnniaiy loss, feeble ha rrier against tlu; efi'ects of the malevo- 
leni passions that are known to reside in the human heart. 
'I'lie most inlinman wretch may own slaves, as well as Ihe 
humane and genile. Should laws leave one liuinan being 
in the power of another to such an extent.' In many coun- 
tries where slavery exists the laws prescribe the manner 



in which they shall be used, and that, too, in lands which 
do not boast either of the light and science we enjoy or of 
the liherty and eqiialily winch raise us above and distin- 
guish us IVoiii all the nations of the globe." 

Nor did the movement, as appears at least from 
this address, coiitetnplate the abolition of slavery 
in Tennessee alone; for, afleralludiiig to the great 
doctrines proinulgated in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, it says: 

" On the certainty oftlie unchai)2;'ablenessofthPse truths, 
wejustil'y our separation from the Government of Great Brit- 
ain. For the defense and enjoyment of these principles our 
fathers willingly met death, and. surrendered their lives mar- 
tyrs. They bequeathed them to usas the greatest of human 
legacies. Yet slavery, as it exists in the United States, is 
in direct opposition to these self evident maxims. Every 
line of our history, every battle in (mr struggle for independ- 
ence, every anniversary of our national birth condemns 
tlie principles of slavery, and fixes on us the charge of (.dar- 
ing inconsistency; and every law passed by Legislatures in 
favor of slavery is in direct opposition to the principles of 
our national existence. Let us willingly do that which 
we justly blanieGreat Britain for rel'nsing to do until forced, 
namely, achiowledge the riglils of men, and sli'e, in a suita- 
ble way, more than one million and a half of people to enjoy 
these sacred rights." 

In 1834, when the convention to revise the con- 
stitution assembled, the slaves in the State num- 
bered more than one hundred and fifty thousand. 
The power of the slave oligarchy had increased, 
and opposition to the institution had perhaps be- 
come less powerful. F>ut in the first week of the 
convention, petitions on the subject of emancipa- 
tion were presented from the citizens of Maury 
county, and were soon followed by others from 
Robertson, Lincoln, Bedford, Overton, Roane, 
R,hea, Knox, Monroe, McMiiin, Blount, Sevier, 
Cocke, Jefl'erson, Greene, and Washington, many 
of the signers being slaveholders, and all pray- 
ing that all the slaves should be made free by the 
year 1866. By an unforeseen process, the prayer 
of those petitioners will be granted, though the 
convention to which they addressed their prayer 
gave an unfavorable response, and as if in derision 
of the petitioners, attempted to fasten his shackles 
more firmly on the slave. God, whose 
" Ways seem dark, but, soon or late. 
They touch the shining hills of day," 

in His infinite mercy and wisdom has in this re- 
spect reversed the decrees of man . Well for Ten- 
nessee and her bleeding people would it have 
been had the members of that convention bowed 
reverently to His will, as did the framers of the 
Constitution of the United States, and so worded 
the instrument they fashioned that it would not 
have informed posterity that so odious an institu- 
tion as slavery had ever been tolerated by the 
State. 

During the second week of the session, Mat- 
thew Stephenson, a farmer of Washington county, 
a native of Rockingham county, Virginia, moved 
" that a committee of thirteen, one from each con- 
gressional district, be appointed to take into con- 
sideration the propriety of designating some pe- 
riod from which slavery shall not be tolerated in 
this State, and that all memorials on that subject 
that have or may be presented to the convention 
be referred to said committee to consider and re- 
port thereon;" which resolution, by a vote of 38 
to 20, was laid on the table on the Isl of January, 
1835. 



10 



This action of the convention was not readily 
acquiesced in by the people; and to avert popular 
indignation it was "resolved that a committee of 
three, one from each division of the State, be ap- 
pointed to draft the reasons tiiat governed this con- 
vention in declining to act upon the memorials on 
the subject of slavery." The address prepared 
by the committee appointed under this resolution 
does not attempt to defend or apologize for sla- 
very ; does not deny that it is a great wrong; speaks 
of "the unenviable condition of the slave;" of 
slavery as " unlovely in all its aspects," and de- 
plores " the bitter draught the slave is doomed to 
drink. " It rests the defense of the convention on 
other grounds than divine sanction of this mon- 
strous wrong, this hideous outrage upon every 
precept of Christianity, this violation of every 
clause of the decalogue. It puts its defense on 
the ground of policy, and asserts that a constitu- 
tional provision looking to gradual emancipation 
would deplete the State of its laborers; that men 
would hurry their slaves into Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana, Missouri, or Arkansas, where 
they would be less kindly treated than in Tennes- 
see, and where the prospect of ultimate emancipa- 
tion would be more remote. This address to the 
people of Tennessee admonishes us of the peren- 
nial fountain of evil they would inflict on the peo- 
ple of the insurgent district, who would doom the 
more than three million six hundred and sixty-six 
thousand people of color, dwelling within its lim- 
its, to that dubious measure of freedom enjoyed 
by men to whom political rights are denied, by the 
following pointed passage: 

"Tlie condition of a free man of color, surrounded by 
persons of a diti'erent caste and complexion, is the most 
forlorn and wretched that can be imagined. He is a stranger 
in the land of his nativity; he is an outcast in the place of 
his residence ; lie has scarcely a motive to prompt him to 
virtuous action or to stimulate him to honorable exertions. 
At every turn and corner of the walks of life he is beset 
with temptations, strong, nay, almost irresistible, to the 
force of which in most cases he may be expected to yield, 
the consequence of which must be that he will be degraded, 
despised, and trampled upon by the rest of the comiiinnity. 
When the free man of color is oppressed by the proud, or 
circumvented by the cunning, or betrayed by those in 
whom he has reposed confidence, do the laws of the land 
atford him more than a nominal protection.' Denied his 
oath in a court of justice, unable to call any of his own 
color to be witnesses, if the injury he complains of lias 
been committed by a white man, how many of his wrongs 
must remain unredressed; how many of his rights be vio- 
lated with impunity; how poor a boon does he receive 
when he is receiving freedom, if what he receives can be 
called by that name. Unenviable as is the condition of the 
slave, unlovely as slavery is in all its aspects, bitter as the 
draught may be that the slave is doomed to drink, never- 
theless his condition is better than the condition of the free 
luan of color in the midstofacomniunity of white men with 
whom he has no common interest, no fellow-feeling, no 
equality." 

And it speaks to such with more pertinency 
than it did to those for whom it was written when 
it says: 

"What, tlien,would be the condition of the community, 
with such a multitude of human beings turned loose in so- 
ciety, with all the hahits, morals, and manners of the slave, 
u-ilhonly Ike name and nominal pricilcgcs, but unthout any 
of the real blessings of liberty or the real privileges of the 
freeman! Would not two distinctclasses of peopU; in the 
same comniuniiy array themselves against each other in 
perpetual hostility and niiitual distrust.' Would not the 
constant collision that would take place between tJiem pro- 



duce a feverish excitement, alike destructive to the happi- 
ness of both parties.' Would not the condition of free 
people of color, under the operation of the causes already 
enumerated, be more; wretched than the condition of the 
Slavics.' Would not the white portion of the community be 
more insecure with siteh n muUitucle among them, who had- 
no common interest with, no Ij07id of union to, that part of 
the community with whom they were mixed, and yet from 
■u-hom they were forever separated hy a mink of distinction 
that time itself could not wear away ? Tlie people of color, 
numerous as they would be, with no kirjdred fweling to 
unite them to that part of the community, whom I hey would 
both envy and hate, would nevertheless have at their com- 
mand a portion of physical strength that might ami proba- 
bly would be wielded to the worst purposes. They would 
look across the southern boundary of the State, aiid there 
they would see in a state of servitude a people of their own 
color and kindred, to whom they were bound by the strong 
bonds of consanguinity, and with whom they could make 
a common cause, and would they not be strongly tempted to 
concert plans with them to exterminate the white man and 
take possession of the country.' 'J'liey would then possess 
the means of consulting together, of cooperating with each 
other, and let it not be forgotten that thry would he ani- 
mated by every feeling of the human heart that impels to 
action." 

Our millions will not look across the boundary 
and behold a people of their color and kindred in 
bondage. In all the States of Central America, 
as in Mexico, the colored man is not only free, 
but a citizen in the full enjoynnent of all the rights 
accorded to any man under his Government. But 
on this point I shall have a few words to say here- 
after. 

How blinded by the pride of ca.ste were the au- 
thors of the address from which I make these ex- 
tracts ! How fatally did they ignore the fact that 
God had made all nations of one blood ! It was 
not necessary that Tennessee should expatriate 
her laborers, or maintain slavery, or create in her 
midst so dangerous a class. It was open to that 
convention to avoid the great iniquity which, it 
appears, a majority of its members had predeter- 
mined, namely, the deprivation of the free colored 
man of the political rights he had enjoyed for forty 
years, and to have maintained the existing rights 
of those whose labor was giving consideration to 
the State and wealth to its people. But they had 
already forgotten the maxims of the fathers; and 
it will be well if we do not adopt their folly as our 
wisdom. Let us profit by their sad experience, 
and be warned by the voice of JefTerson, who ex- 
claimed: 

" With what execration should the statesman be loaded, 
who, permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the 
rights of the other, transforms those into despots and these 
into enemies — destroys the morals of llie one part, and the 
amor patria of tlie other!" 

And let us remember, too, that a wiser than lie 
lias said — 

"Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and 
write grievousness which they have prescribed; to turn 
aside the needy from judgment, and take away the right 
from the poor." 

But plausible as were the reasons set forth in 
this address, its authors did not intimate to the 
people that even they doubted that the great 
wrong of slavery would soon disappear; and, as 
appears by pages 92 and 93 of the Journal, they 
further said: 

" But the friends of humanity need not despair; the me- 
morialists need not dread that slavery will be perpetual in 
our highly-favored country." * * * * "Under 
the approving smile of Heaven, and the fostering care of 



//^/ 



11 



Prnvidencp, slavery will yet be extinguished in a way that 
Will woiU no uvil to the wliito niiin, while it produces llie 
iKippiestdll'of ts upon the whole African race." * * 

* * "Let it be rcmiinliercd that there is an ap- 

propriate iiine Jor every work beneath the sun, and a pre- 
mature attempt to do any work, particularly any great work, 
seldom laiL-; to prevent success. A premature attempt on 
the part ot a sick man to leave his bed and his chamber 
would iiievitably prolong his disease, or perhaps place it 
beyond the power of medicine. A similar attempt on the 
part ol the poor man to place himself in a state of independ- 
ence, by cngajjin^; in some [ilausible but imprudent specu- 
lation, would probably involve him in embarrassment from 
which he could notextricate himself throughout the wliole 
remaining portion of his life. So a premature attempt on 
the part of the benevolent to get rid of the evils of slavery 
would certainly have the etleet of postponing to a far dis- 
tant day the aecomplishment of an cient devoutly and 
ardently desired by the wise and the good in every part of 
our beloved country." 

Tlie sophisms of this report were not permitted 
to pass witiiout notice. Stout old Matthew 
Stepiiensoii, (for he was then in the fifty-eighth 
year of Jiis age,) sustained hy several of liis asso- 
ciates, caused their protest to be entered on the 
journals. They said, among other things: 

" We believe the principles assumed in the report, and 
the arguments used in their support, are in their tendency 
subversive of the true principles of republicanism, and be- 
fore we can consistently give them our unqualified assent 
we must renounce the doctrine that 'all men are created 
e(iual; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, an<l 
the pursuit of happiness.' Above all, wa believe the report 
is at variance witli the spirit of the gospel, which is the 
glory of our land, the precepts and maxims of which are 
found in the Bible. One of its excellent rules is, ' As ye 
would that men should do unto yon, do ye even so unto 
them.' Now, to apply this golden rule to the case of mas- 
ter and the slave, we have just to place each in the other's 
stead, then ask the question lionestly, ' What would I that 
my servant, thus placed in power, should do unto me." " 

" But we are told nature has placed on the man of color 
a mark of distinction which neither time nor circum- 
stances can obliterate. 

" fVe admit the fact, but are neverthelessunahle to pereeive 
in that a «;ood reason for denyinf; to themlhe cummonri'^hts 
of man. The words of eternal truth are, that God hasmade 
of one blood all nations that dwell upon the earth, and the 
undersigned, in the language of Gowper, are unwilling to 
' tind their fellow-creature guilty of a skin not colored like 
their own;' nor can we admit us just the rule that imuld 
assign to men their rights according to the different shades of 
color. Ill the opinion of tlie undersigned, all the evils so 
strikingly and so eloquently portrayed in the report, re- 
specting the free peojile of color while among us, app'y 
with equal, nay, with greater force to the same people 
while in slavery, unless, indeed, slavery gives dignity lo 
man. And although the memorialists do not hint at retain- 
ing the people of color among us when free, but ask that 
some means be devised for their removal ; nor would the 
unihrsigned be uiulerstood as advocating any system of 
einaneipation unconnected with or without a view to their 
colonization; yet we believe they would be happier and 
sater ^nbjeets of i lur Government as free men than as slaves. 
,/ls we hold it zvise policy in every Government to make it the 
interest of all its subjects to support, defend, and perpetuate 
its civil institutions, is it reasonable to suppose that any would 
desire the permanent existence of that Government which 
denied to them all the rights of freemen 1 Solomon in his 
wisdom has said, ' Oppression makes a wise man mad.' " 

Dr. Joseph Kincaid, of Bedford county, a native 
of Madison county, Kentucky, also prepared a 
protest against the doctrines of liie address, and 
caused it to be entered on the Journals. From 
that protest I make but the following extract: 

"Can the free man of color be torn from his wife and 
family and ihiven in chains to a foreign lanil andlliere sold 
in llie market llki; a dnmh lirnte to him who will give the 
greaiest sum for him, iliough his licart bleeds and bosom 



yearns with bowelsof compassion and paternal tenderness 
for the wife and children of his bosom, who are bone of hid 
bone and fiesh of his tiesli.'' Me cannot. Or can the chil- 
dren of the fond mother be torn from her bosom while her 
heart is wrung with distress, and she agonizes in despair 
and mourns for them, and will not be comforted, because 
they are not.' This camiot be done. Then does this not 
sn-ecte7i the ' draught' whicli the free man of lolor daily 
drinks.' Most indiibitably it does. Are these blessings se- 
cured to the slave .'' We have seen they are not. Wiiat is 
it, then, which constitutes the situation of the slave better 
than that of tlie free man of color 1 Does the superior hap- 
piness and comfort of the slave over that of the free man 
of color consist in the ainoiui' of bread and meat which he 
receives at the hands of his master to subsist him, which 
he has not to trouble himself about the procuring of.' The 
report seems to predicate a good portion of the solid com- 
fort of the slave upon the daily rations which he draws 
from his master's stores. But this conclusion the under- 
signed cannot subscribe to; as <x\i Jimerican citizen he 
would put a higher estimate upon the liberty which is en- 
joyed even by the free man of color. Wliat ! will it be said 
that his rights, privileges, and happiness shall be balanced 
in the scale against the allowance of coarse fare which is 
given for daily subsistence to the slave, and the tattered 
garments that are furinslied him to defend his body against 
the inclemency of the season, and the chains with which 
he may be hound in order to send him to a foreign market? 
Monstrous doctrine ! Cannot the free man of color, with 
the labor of his hands, one sixth part of his time, procure 
as ample a supidy of ibod and raiment as is furnislied the 
slave.' Yea, and can he iM>t then sit down under his own 
vine, in the bosom of his fatnily. and enjoy it, and there 
sliall ' be none to disturb or make him al'raid ." " 

Nor did the controversy end here; for the com- 
mittee made a supplementary re[)ort, and true- 
hearted old Matthew Stephenson and his asso- 
ciates entered their seconti protest on the journal 
of the convention. "* 

In drawing the picture of the condition of the 
free man of color, the committee representing the 
majority of the convention evidently had in view 
what they intended to make his future and not his 
past condition in that State; for the convention, 
instead of providing for the abolition of slavery, 
threw around that institution an additional safe- 
guard by providing that " the General Assembly 
shall have no power to pass laws for the emanci- 
pation ofslaves without the consent of their owner 
or owners;" and by a vote of 33 to 23 cht^nged 
the language of the clause regulating the elective 
franchise from " freemen," as it had stood from 
the organizationof the State, to "free white men," 
since which time the negro has had no voice or 
share in the management of the public affairs of 
that State. Thus South Carolina triumphed over 
freedom in Tennessee. 

But to return to my line of argument, having 
wandered too far in this interesting digression. 

Ample as this is, we do not depend on the action 
of the Congress of the Confederation, and of the 
Convention for framing the Constitution of the 
United States, and the provisions of the several 
State constitutions for all the proof the men of 
that period left that they recognized the right of 
man, by reason of his manhood, to the enjoyment 
of all the rights of citizenship. A long and uni- 
form course of legislation relating to and regulat- 
ing territory stretching from the lakes soutliward 
to the Gulf of Mexico, confirms the fact. Con- 
gress, under the Articles of Confederation, twice 
pi-ovidvd for the government of Territories, and 
under our present Constitution' the Cotigress of 
the United States much moi'e frequently. The 
distinguished men who occupied seats in those 



12 



bodies prior to 1812 liacJ not been enlightened by 
llie sibylline mysieiius giver, to the world in the 
celebrated letterof General Cass to Mr. Nicholson, 
nor by the doctrine of " popular sovereignty" so 
persistently reiterated by Douglas as liis "great 
doctrine;" nor by Calhoun's theory, wiiicli was 
finally accepted as the cardinal, if not the sole 
doctrine of Democratic faith, that the flag of the 
United States, wherever it may be borne, on land 
or sea, carries with it and protects human slavery, 
as announced by Toombs in his Boston address 
of January 24, 1856. They knew that it was the 
duty of Congress, alike under the Articles of Con- 
federation and the Constitution of the United 
States, to legislate for the Territories and provide 
governments for their regulation. The resolutions 
of the Congress of the Confederation for the tem- 
porary government of territory ceded by the in- 
dividual States to the United States, adopted April 
23, 1784, provided for the establishment of terri- 
torial governments by the " free males of full age;" 
and the famous Ordinance of July 13, 1787, for the 
government of the territory northwest of the river 
Ohio, which repeals the resolutions of 1784, and 
the salient point of which was known first as the 
" Jefl'erson proviso," and later, in connection with 
tlie Oregon struggle, as the " Wilmot proviso," 
vested tlie right of suff'rage in the "free male in- 
habitants of full age," with a certain freehold 
qualification. 'I'his Ordinance was reenacted im- 
mediately after the adoption of our present Con- 
stitution, by the act of Congress ofAugust 7, 1789; 
and in this respect was the precedent for every 
subsequent territorial act passed until 1812. The 
several acts passed from the foundation of tlie 
Government to that date, were as follows: 

Under the Congress of the Confederation, those 
to which I have referred, namely, that of April 
23, 1784, " for the temporary government of ter- 
ritory ceded or to be ceded by the individual States 
to the United States;" and that of July 13, ]787, 
" for the governmentof the territory of the United 
States northwest of the river Ohio." 

And by the Congress of tlie United States since 
the adoption of the Constitution: 

The act of August 7, 1789, already referred to 
as reenacting the Ordinance of 1787; 

The act of May 26, 1790, for the government 
of the territory of the United States south of the 
river Ohio, under which, as we have seen, the 
State of Tennessee was organized; 

The act of April 7, 1798, for the establisliment 
of a government in tlie Mississippi territory; 

The act of May 7, 1800, establishing Indiana 
Territory; 

The act of March 26, 1804, for the government 
of Louisiana, which provided for u legislative 
council, to be appointed by the President of the 
United States, and not for an elective Legislature, 
as did all the rest; 

The act of Jiuiunry 11, 1805, for the govern- 
ment of Michigan Territory; 

The act of iVIarch 2, 1805, for the establisli- 
ment of the Territory of Orleans; and 

The act of February 3, 1809, for the govern- 
ment of Illinois Territory. 

And in no one of these ten acts was any re- 
Btnctioii placed on the right of suflVage by rea- 



son of the color of the citizen. In none of them 
was the word "white" used to limit the right to 
sufi"rage. 

The next territorial act was that of June 4, 
1812, providing for the government of Missouri 
Territory. More than twenty-two years had then 
passed since the adoption of the Constitution; 
and the men who had achieved our independence 
and fashioned our institutions in harmony with 
the fundamental truths they had declared, and 
who during this long period, more than the aver- 
age active life of a generation, had resisted the 
aristocratic and strife-engendering demands of 
South Carolina, were rapidly passing, indeed 
most of them had passed, from participation in 
public affairs. Meanwhile, slavery had been 
strengthened by the unhappy comjnomise of the 
Constitution conceded to South Carolina and 
Georgia, by which " the migration or importa- 
tion of such persons as any of the States now ex- 
isting shall liiink proper to admit" was permitted 
for the period of twenty years. Meanwhile, too, 
the people of the country, enjoying unmeasured 
and unantici[iated prosperity, forgot that " eternal 
vigilance is the price of liberty," and that " power 
is ever stealitig from the many to the few;" and 
proud of their own achievements began to loolc 
with contempt upon the ignorant laborers they 
owned or employed, and their kindred newly im- 
ported from the coast of Africa; and began that 
longand rapid series of concessions to the fell spirit 
of slavery which made the present war inevitable, 
if free laborand the doctrine of afair day 's wages 
for a fair day 's work were to be maintained in any 
part of the country. In the adoption of the ter- 
ritorial bill of 1812, South Carolina and slavery 
triumphed over freedom and the more powerful 
IVortli, and the word "white," rejected in 177S 
and thenceforth, was now insertetl in the clause 
regulating sufl'rage in the fundamental law of a 
Territory. 

Successful resistance to that innovation on well- 
established precedent would have secured free- 
dom to Missouri, and in all probability averted 
the border wars of Kansas and the grander con- 
troversy in which we are engaged, and of which 
the Kansas feuds were but the sure precursor. 

Can any candid man, in the face of this mass 
of concurrent evidence, assert that the fathers of 
our Government found in the fact of color cause 
for the denial of citizenship and the exercise of 
suflVage to any freeman? But more and if pos- 
sible more pregnant proof on the point exists: not 
only ltd they assert the right of negroes to suf- 
frage by rcji cting the proposition of South Caro- 
lina 111 the Congress for framing Articles of Con- 
federation, and protect it liy tiie Constitution of \ 
the United States, and confirm it by twelve terri- 
torial laws; but, as 1 shall proceed to siiovv,they, 
by express treaty stipulation, first with France 
and again with Spam, guarantied them " the 
enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and irn- 
nuinities of citiz<!ns ot the United States," and 
the " free enjoyment ot' their liberty, property, and 
the religion which they professed." To show 
how unqualifiedly this was done under the admin- 
istration of Mr. Jcllerson, 1 beg leave to read a 
brief extract from that most interesting and in- 



/// 



13 



structive pamplilet, "The Einancipated Slave 
Face to Face wiili his Old Muster," by J. Mc- 
Kaye, special commissioner from the War De- 
panmeiit to tiie valley of the lower Mississippi, 
and also a member of the Freedmen's Inquiry 
Commission: 

" The valley oftlielowerMississippi, from an oarly period 
nf its seitlemeiit, coiilaiiied a pmpoitioiiately large free 
colored population. In 1803, wlieu llie territory of wliicli 
the State of Louisiana forms a part, was et'iled by the 
French republic to the United States, these free colored 
men were already quite numerous, and many of them were 
possessed of considerable property. They vvereuotonly as 
free as any other portion of the population, but in general 
as well educated and intelligent. Many oftheni were the 
children of the early white settlers, and liad always enjoyed 
a certain social as well as civil equality. As to the enjoy- 
ment of political rights under the old Spanish and French 
regimes, neither white nor black settlers ever liad much 
c.\|)erieiice; consequently there had never arisen among 
tlicjn much question of these rights, or as to whom they be- 
longed. The French republic, iounded on 'liberty, equal- 
ity, fraternity,' had not yet quite Ibrgotten the import of 
these words, and hence caused to be inserted in the treaty 
of cession a solemn stipulation in the words following, to 
wit : 

" ' Art. 3. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall 
he incorporated into the Union of the United States, and 
admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of 
the Federal C(nistitution, to the enjoyment of all tlie rights, 
4dviuitages,i>nd immunities of citizens ofthe United Stales; 
and in the mean time they shall be maintained and protected 
in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the re- 
ligion vvhieli they profess.'" 

The Floritias, though less populous than the 
Louisiana territory, had quite as large a propor- 
tionate part of negroes and mulattoes among their 
population. By the treaty of February 22, 1819, 
with Spain, she ceded to the United States "all 
the territories which belong to her, situated to the 
eastward ofthe Mississippi, known by the name 
ofEasiand West Floridas." The sixth article of 
the treaty is as follows: 

"The inhabitants of the territories which his Catholic 
M;iji-sty cedes to the United Slates by treaty shall be incor- 
IMJiateil in the Union of the United States as soon as may 
be consistent witli the principles of the Federal Constitu- 
tion, aiul admitted to the enjoyment of all the privileges, 
rights, and iunnniiities ofthe citizens ofthe United Stales." 

My proposition is that tlie Government ofthe 
United Stales was instituted to secure the rights 
of all the citizens ofthe country, and not for the 
benefit of men of one race only, and I know not 
where to look for evidence that would strengthen 
the conclusiveness of the mass of proof i have 
thus adduced, embracing as it does the action of 
the framers of all the State constitutions but one, 
of the Congress for framing Articles of Confed- 
eration, ot till! Convention for framing the Consti- 
tution of the United States, the acts of Congress 
in unbroken series throughout the active life of a 
generation, and the solemn obligations assumed by 
the executive department of the national Govern- 
inent in the exercise ofthe treaty-making power, 
(t'other source of proof there be it can only serve 
to make assurance doubly sure. 

Mr. Speaker, it is safe to assert that in every 
9iaie, save South Carolina, and possibly Virginia 
md Delaware — in which two Slates the question 
'f sulTrage was regulated by statute and not by 
;onsiiHitional provision — negroes participated in 
'.onstituting the Convention which framed the 
'Joiistitution of the United States, and voted for 
■ncmbers of the State conventions to which tlie 



question of its ratification was submitted; and as 
that Constitution contains no clause which ex- 
pressly or by implication deprives them of the 
[irotecting power and influence of the instrument 
tiiey participated in creating, 1 may well say that 
to secure internal peace by the establishment of 
political homogeneity, and perpetuate it by the 
abolition of political classes and castes whose 
conflicting rights and interests will provoke inces- 
sant agitation, and eve rand an on, as the oppressed 
may be inspired by the fundairiental principles 
of our Government, or goaded by wrongs excite 
armed insurrection, we need adopt no new theory, 
but accept the principles of our fathers, and ad- 
minister in good faith to all ntien the institutions 
they founded on them. 

As a step to this, my amendment proposes, 
not that the entire mass of people of AtVicun de- 
scent, whom our laws and customs have dejrraded 
and brutalized, shall be immediately clotlied with 
all the rights of citizenship. It proposes only to 
grant the right of suffrage, inestimable to all men, 
to those who may be so far fitted by education for 
its judicious exercise as to be able to read the Con- 
stitution and laws of the country, in addition to 
the brave men, who, in the name of law and lib- 
erty, and in the hope of leaving their children heirs 
to both, have welcomed the Lmptisnt of battle in the 
naval and military service ofthe United Stales, and 
who areembraced by the amendment reported by 
thecommittee. This, I admit, will be an entering 
wedge, by the aid of which, in a brief time, the 
whole mass improved, enriched, and enlightened 
by the fast-coming and beneficent providences of 
God, will be qualified for and perinitted to enjoy 
those rights by which they may protect themse I vef 
and aid in giving to all others tliat near approach 
to exact justice which we hope to attain from the 
intelligent exercise of universal suffrage and the 
submission of all trials of law in which a citizen 
may be interested to the decision of his peers as 
jurors. 

I am, Mr. Speaker, under but one specific 
pledge to my constituents other than that which 
promised to vote away the last dollar from each 
man's coffer and the last able-bodied son from his 
hearthside, if they should be needed f>r the effect- 
ual suppression of the rebellion, and that is, that 
I will in their behalf consent to no proposed sys- 
tem of reconstruction which shall place the loyal 
men of tlie insurrectionary district under the un- 
bridled control of ihe wicked and heartless trai- 
tors who have involved tis in this war, and illus- 
trated their liarbarity by the fiendish cruelties they 
have practiced on their loyal neighbors, negro sol- 
diers and unhappy prisoners of war; and to that 
pledge, Gotl helping me, 1 mean to [irove faithful. 
The future peace and prosperity of the country 
demand this much at our liaiids. The logic of 
our institutions, the principles of the men who 
achieved our independence and who framed those 
institutions, alike impel us to this course, as ne- 
cessary as it will be wise and just. 

Let us meet the question fairly. Do our institu- 
tions rest on comjilexional differences.' Can we 
cement and perpetuate them by surrendering the 
patriots ofthe insurgent district, shorn of all po- 
litical power, into llie hands of the traitors whom 



14 



we propose to propitiate by svich a sacrifice of 
faith and lienor? Djtl God ordain our country 
for n sinjile race of men? la there reason why 
tlic intelligent, U'ealtliy, loyal man of color sluiU 
stand apart, abased, on election day, while his 
ignorant, intemperate, vicious, and disloyal while 
neighbor participateo in making laws for his 
governmeriL? Wliat is the logic that denies to a 
aoii the right to vote with or against his father, 
because it has pleased Heaven that he should par- 
take more largely of liis mother's tlian of that 
father's complexion? And is it not known to all 
of us that well-nigh forty per cent, of the colored 
people of the South are children of white fathers, 
wlio, after we subjugate them, will with profes- 
sions of loyalty only lip deep, enjoy the right of 
surt'rage in the reconstructed States? Shall he, 
though black as ebony be his skin, wlio, by pa- 
tient industry, obedience to the laws, and unvary- 
ing good liabits, has accumulated property on 
which he cheerfully pays taxes, be denied the 
right of a voice in the government of a State to 
wiiose support and welfare he thus contributes, 
while the idle, reckless, thriftless man of fairer 
complexion shall vote away his earnings and 
trifle with his life or interests as a juror? Shall 
the brave man who has periled life, and mayhap 
lost limb, who has endured the dangers of the 
march, the camp, and the bivouac in defense of 
our Constitution and laws, be denied their pro- 
tection, while the traitors in the conquest of whom 
lie assisted enjoy those rights, and use them as 
instruments for his oppression and degradation? 
Shall he who, in the languageof my amendment, 
may be able to read the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, and who finds his pleasure in the study 
of history and political philosophy, whose in- 
tegrity is undoubted, whose means are ample, be 
voiceless in the councils of the nation, and read 
only to learn that the peofile of free and enlight- 
ened America, among whom his lot has been 
cast, sustain the only Government which punishes 
a race because God in His providence gave it a 
complexion which its unhappy members would 
not have accepted iiad it been submitted to their 
choice or volition? And can he who will answer 
these questions affirmatively believe that Govern- 
ments are instituted among nit-n to secure their 
rights, that they derive their powers from tlie 
consent of the governed, and that it is the duty 
of a people, when any Government becomes de- 
structive of their rights, to alter or abolish it, and 
establish a new Government? Sir, our hope for 
peaci!, wnile we attem|)t to govern two fifths of the 
people of one iialf of our country in violation of 
these fundamental principles, will be idle as the 
breeze of summer or the dreams of the opium 
cater. 

In this connection let me call the attention of the 
House to a fact to which I have already invited 
that of many members and other distinguished 
gentlemen. By the census of It'GO it appears 
that South Carolina had but 291,31(0 white inhab- 
itants, and 412,4()8 colored. Among the former 
we have no reason to Icnow or believe that, since 
the death of Pettigrcw, there is a single loyal 
man; while the latter, we have no reason to doubt, 
arc all as loyal as Robert Small, tiic patriot pilot 



of Charleston harbor. Are we to declare that one 
white citizen of South Carolina is entitled to more 
weight in the councils of the nation than two citi- 
zens of a northern State; and are the 291,300 to be 
vested with the absolute government of 703,708? 
Is the entire loyalty of that State tobeconfidiul to 
the tender mercies of the chagrined and humili- 
ated, but unconverted and devilish traitors of the 
State that engendered and inaugurated this bloody 
rebellion ? And shall they who have fought for our 
flag, sheltered our soldiers when flying from loath- 
some prisons, guided them through hidden patha 
by night, saving them from starvation by sharing 
with them their poor and scanty food, and whose 
unceasing prayer to God has been for our triumph , 
be handed over to the lash, the iron collar, and 
the teeth of the blood-hound, to gratify our pride 
of race and propitiate our malignant foes? 

Again, the census shows that Mississippi, in 
1800 had but 350,901 white inhabitants, and 
437,404 colored. Disloyalty was almost as prev- 
alent among the white men of Mississippi as 
among those of South Carolina. But who has 
heard from traveler, correspondent, returning sol- 
dier, or other person, that he hasfound a colored 
traitor within the limits of that State? And shall 
we, ignoring our theory that " Governments de- 
rive their just powers from the consent of the 
governed," say to the majority in these States, 
" Stand back ! time and labor cannot qualify you 
to take care of yourselves? We spurn you for 
the service you have rendered our cause, and hand 
you over to the degradation, the unrequited toil, 
the slow but sure and cruel extermination which 
your oppressors in their pride and madness will 
provide for you?" 

And mark you, Mr. Speaker, again, how nearly 
the races are balanced in Louisiana, Georgia, and 
Alabama. In Louisiana there are 357, 45fi whites 
and 350,546 colored peojile. Of whites in Georgia 
there are 591,550, and of colored people there are 
465,736. In Alabama the whites number 526,271, 
while there are of colored 437,930. And in Flor- 
ida there is the same near approach to equality of 
numbers, the white population being 77,747 and 
the colored 62,677. Are these people by our de- 
cree to remain dumb and voiceless in freedom? 
They are no longer slaves. War and the high 
prerogative of the President, called into exercise 
by the war, have made them free. Will you in- 
flict upon them all the miseries predicted for the 
free colored people of Tennessee in the extract 
which 1 have read to you? No, rather let us 
bind them to our Government by enabling them 
to protect their interests, share its power, and ap- 
preciate its beneficence. This we can do, and 
the alternative is to so degrade them that they will 
prove an annoyance and an object of distrust to 
their white neighbors, an element of weakness 
to the Government, and a constant invitation to 
diplomatic intrigue and war by the ambitious 
man who dreams of a Latin empire in America, 
and who, following the example of the States of 
Central and South America, will accept the de- 
scendant of Africa as a Basque aiirf a citizen of 
his proposed empire. 

And here it may not be amiss to pause for a 
moment and contemplate some ulterior conse- 



15 



//2- 



quences of our action on this subject. Trained 
in the school of Democracy, I am a believer in 
the " manifest destiny " of my country. Having 
regarded the acquisition by Mr. Jefferson of the 
Louisiana territory as wise and benelicent, ihougli 
unwarranted by the Constitution, beholding great 
advantages in the acquisition of Florida, and liav- 
ing believed that, wuliout war, could we have 
patiently waited, Texas would have come to us 
naturally as a State or States of the Union, I am 
vised to dreaming of the just influence the United 
States are to exercise, from end to end of the 
American continent. Among the most ephemeral 
products of our era will be the Franco-Austrian 
empire in Mexico, if we be but true to our own 
principles in this season of doubt and perplexity. 
Our infidelity to principles alone can give it per- 
pstuity. Within its limits the question of color 
is not a political or asocial question; it is purely 
oa« of taste. There, as in Central and South 
America, the colored man is a freeman. And 
we are to determine whether the sympathies of 
these millions of people within our own borders 
are to be with the Government whose supremacy 
tliey have aided in reestablishing or with the wily 
and ainbitious man who will pledge them citizen- 
ship on condition that they aid him in carrying the 
limits of his Latin empire to the northern bound- 
ary of the Gulf States of America. To them the 
United Stales or Mexico will be the exemplar na- 
tion of the world. Before her ruder lawsall men 
are equal. Let ours be not less broad and just. 

The tropical and malarious regions of Central 
America have, during the prevalence of slavery, 
seemed to be the natural geographical boundary 
of our influence in that direction. Tropical re- 
gions are not the home of the white man. They 
were not made for him. God did not adapt him 
to them. Tliey are prolific in wealth, invite to 
commercial intercourse, yield many things neces- 
sary to the success of our arts and industry, and 
will one day afford a market forimmense masses 
of our productions. But we cannot occupy them; 
we cannot develop their resources. Nor can the 
negro, in the ignorance and degradation to which 
we have hitherto doomed him. We have at length 
made him a soldier, and if need be he will carry 
our arms and our flag triumphantly over that 
to us pestilential region; and, if we make him a 
citizen; open to his children the school-house; 
give him the privilege of the workshop, the studio, 
the hall of science; admit him to the delights and 
inspirations of literature, philosophy, poetry — in 
brief, if we recognize him as a man and open to 
Irim the broad fields of American enterprise and 
culture, he will see that nature has given him the 
monopoly of the wealth of that region, and will 
bless the world by making himself the master of it. 
By this means, and this alone, can we extend our 
influence over that region, and prepare for the 
ultimate Americanization of those drained by 
the Orinoko, the Amazon, and the Parana. As 
a citizen, nature will prompt the colored man 
to achieve these grand results. But if we leave 
the race a disfranchised and disaffected class in 
our midst, numbering millions, and embracing 
hundreds of thousands of men who in pursuitof 
freedom have bared their breasts to the storm of 



battle, and who are no longer debarred by stat- 
ute from access to the sources of thought and 
knowledge, they will, let me reiterate the fact, be 
a ready and powerful ally to anyjiower thatmay 
be disposed to disturb our peace and that will 
promise them the enjoyment of tlie rights of men 
as accorded to every citizen by its Government. 

But it may be said, " history vindicates your 
theory; our fathers did mean that the black man 
should be a citizen and a voter; to deny him his 
rights is illogical as you have suggested; it would 
be better to secure his loyalty to the Government 
by its even-handed justice, but such an act would 
exasperate the souiliern people, and we do not 
think it wise to do that; his race is inferior; and, 
in short, we will not do it." Who says his race 
is inferior.' Upon what theater have you per- 
mitted him to exhibitor develop his power.' Give 
him an opportunity to exhibit his capacity, and 
let those who follow you and have before them 
the results he produces in freedom judge as to his 
relative position in the scale of human power and 
worth. To whom and to what do you say the 
American negro and mulatto are inferior.' Was 
our Government fashioned for the Caucasian 
alone? Will you, as Theodore Til ton well asked, 
exchange the negro for the Esquimaux, for the 
Pacific islander, for the South American tribes .> 
Will you exchange our negroes for so many Mon- 
golians, Ethiopians, American Indians, or Ma- 
lays.' I apprehend that the universal answer to 
these questions will be in the negative; because, 
oppress them as we may, we rate the American 
negroes as next to our own proud race in the 
scale of humanity. And shall we erect around 
our civilization, our privileges, and immunities, 
a more than Chinese wall .' Shall America, proud 
of her democracy, become the most exclusive of 
all nations of the world .' Or shall siie carry her 
faith into her life and become the home of man- 
kind, the empire of freedom, and, by her example, 
the reformer of the world .' 

Let us frankly accept Jefferson's test as to the 
right of suffrage, and give it practical effect. In 
a letter dated July 12, I81G, in discussing a pro- 
posed amendment to the constitution of Virginia, 
Mr. Jefferson said: 

" Tlie true foundation of republican government is the 
equal right of every citizen in liis person and property, and 
in tlieir niaiiageiiient. Try by this as a tally every provis- 
ion of our constitution and see if it hangs directly on tlie 
will of the people. Reduce your Legislature to a conven- 
ient number for full but orderly discussion. Let evcryman 
wlto fiahti or pays exercise his just and equal right in their 
election." — Jefferson's IVorks, vol. 7, page II. 

And again, in a letter written April 19, 1824, 
he said: 

" Ilou-evcr nature may, by mental or physical disquali- 
fications, have marked infants and the weaker sex for the 
protection rather than the dircetion of Govenunent, yet 
amoii^ mcnxiilio either pay or fi^ht for their country no line 
of right can he drawn." — Works, vol. 7, page 345. 

And again, as if to show how well considered 
his opinion was, in the Notes on Virginia, speak- 
ing of the then constitution of that State, he said : 

"This constitution was formed wlieii we were new and 
inexperienced in the science of government. Jl was the 
first, too, that was formed in the whole United Statics. No 
wonder, then, that time and trial have discovered very cap- 
ital defects in it: 

" 1. Tlie majority of the men in the State wko pay and 



16 



li^ht for its support nre iiiirepresenteil in the Legislature, the 
roll <)l' iVe^liolilers eiititletl to vote, not incliiUiiij; generally 
llio halt" of llio militia or oi' ilie tax-gatlieruio." — tyorUs, 
vol.8, page X>9. I 

By adopting tliis sound test, which, be it re- 
niLMiibered, was the only one recognized by tiie 
jkllicrs, and adhc-ring to it, our |)raciice will har- 
monize with our theoiies, and the repugnance be- 
tween the races will gradually disappear. Wealth 
and power conceal many delorniities, and will 
make the black man less odiou.s to ail than he now 
seems. Tluis will consistent adherence to prin- 
cipli' give strength and peace to our country. 

But if, on ihu other jiand, we ignore the rights 
of these four million people and their posterity, 
the demon of agitation will haunt us in the fu- 
ture fearfully us it lias in the past. Tlieafipeals of 
these millions for justice will not go forth in vain; 
and theliberal, the conscientious, the philanthrop- 
ic, the religious, now that our Christian church 
recognizes lier long ofl-cast child philanthropy, 
will be found in iioslile array against what the com- 
mercial and planting interests will regard as the 
conservatism of the day; and though we find that 
we have buried the slavery quesLioti, our peace 
will be disturbed by the negro question constantly, 
and fearfully as it has been by the struggle be- 
tween slavery and free labor. To which party 
ultimate victory would be vouchsafed in such a 
controversy I need nolask, as the nation acknowl- 
edges that God still lives and is omnipotent. 

Again, such action is necessary to prevent the 
reestablishmeiUof our old tormentor, slavery, it 
is hoped that the proposed amendment to the 
Constitution, forever prohibiting slavery, may be 
adopted. But it ha.s not yet passed this House; and 
if it had, who can guaranty its adoption by three 
fourths of the State Legislatures? 1 hope and 
believe that tliat amendment will be adopted; but 
it is within the range of possibility that it may be 
defeated. And how, in that event, save by the 
suffrage of the colored man, by his right to pro- 
tect himself, his jioweratthe ballot-box, shall we 
prevent his subjugation, or I he bloody war that 
such an attempt might provoke — the reenactmeiit 
on the broader theater of our southern States of 
the terrible tragedies that ensued upon theattempt 
to again reduce to bondage the freed slaves of St. 
Domingo .' 

Let it be borne in mind that States within tlie 
Union determine through their organism who 
shall be citizens and under what condition the 
people may enjoy their rights, and tliat, if the 
proposed amendment to thu Constitution fail by 
■want of the approval of a sufficient nuniberof the 
State Legislatures, and South Carolina, when 
readmitted should determine to reenslave herfreed 
men, and they should resist by force, although 
tliey consiituteso largely the majority of her peo- 
ple, it would be the duty of the Government to 
ijring the naval and military power of the United 
iStates into action in support of the authority of 
the State, us it did to suppress the Dorr rebellion 
in Rhode Island and repel the invasion of Virginia 
ijy John Brown and histwenty-two undisciplined 
Vulunteers. 

But gentlemen may say that we need not fear 
such an etfurt ati this; tliat tlie liumauity of the 



age will prevent it. The humanity of the age has 
not prevented si^nilar outrages. Neither the 
humanity of the age, nor the prudence of the 
people ot the South, nor their sense of justice, nor 
their love of country |)revented a bloody war fgr 
the pur|)iise ot' overthrowing democratic institu- 
tions and founding an empire, the corner-stone of 
which should be human slavery. Let us not, 
therefore, while it is in our power to embody 
justice in laws and constitutions, be content to 
rely upon man 's abstract sense of justice or his 
love for his lellow-mnn. Every gentleman knows 
that it has been the usage of every slave State to 
reduce free men, women, and children to liond- 
age. Did not New Jersey, so late as 1797 — as 
appears from the State vs. Waggoner, 1 Hal- 
stead's Reports — hold that American Indians 
might be reduced to and held in slavery.' Has 
it not been lawful in Virginia, as appears by 
her Revised Code and the Constitution of 1851, 
to apprehend and sell, by the overseers of the 
poor, •' for the benefit of the Literary Fund," 
any emancipated slave that might remain within 
the State more than twelve months after his or 
her right to freedom had accrued ? Has not South 
Carolina sold free colored citizens of Massachu- 
setts into bondage, because she had torn them 
from the vessels on which they liad entered her 
ports, imprisoned them and brought them, though 
accused of no criminal oli'ense, under charges for 
jail fees which she had deprived them of the means 
of paying? And has not North Carolina, under 
her act of 1741, been in the habit of dooming to 
slavery the unoftending offspring of any while 
wonian-servant and a negro, mulatto or Indian. 
How horribli^ must have been the crime of the in- 
fant born of a while mother and an Indian father 
that it should thus, by S|iecial statutory provision, 
be punished by life-long, unrequited servitude, 
and be made the progenitor ol' a race of slaves. 
How dark indeed must have been the African 
blood of the child whose mother was a white 
woman and whose father an American Indian ! 

1 know not that the books, full as they are ofsuch 
instances, furnish any more absolute illustration 
of the power of a State over its people than this. 
And yet otlier and grander illustrations of that 
power on this and cognate questions rush upon 
my memory. But a few years since, it was 
gravely proposed by the Legislature of iVlaryland 
to expel from the limits of that State some eighty 
thousand people, because they were of Al'ricaii de- 
scent. The act passed both branches of the Legis- 
lature and was referred to the peopl.; for popular 
sanction. And the main argument by which the 
proposition was defeated at the polls was the 
selfish one that the land of the white citizen would 
remain untilled if these laborers were driven from 
their homes. Had it been determined otherwise, 
the people or the Government of the United States 
could not have prevented the execution of the in- 
famous decree, but could have been called to en- 
force it. A similar proposition, at a later date, 
found favor in Tennessee; but the lingering spirit 
of her earlier settlers rejected it upon the simple 
ami higher ground of humanity. Yet had such 
a law been imacted, and had the free peo|jle of 
color resisted it with force, did not we and every 



17 



//^ 



man in the North stand pledged to sustain the 
Government in the use of the naval and military 
power in carrying it into execution? Dorr's re- 
bellion, and the manner in which the United States 
Government suppressed it, have a place in the 
Jiistory of our country, and illustrate the working 
of our system of Government. 

But why speak of unsuccessful propositions, 
about whicli perverse ingenuity may raise ques- 
tions? Surely we have not forgotten tiie act by 
which the State of Arkansas summarily decreed 
the banishment of free negroes and mulattoes who 
had their homes in that State, and the enslave- 
ment of all such as might not be able to make their 
escape within the brief tinie allowed for the pur- 
pose. They numbered many thousands. Some 
of them iiad been given freedom by their fathers, 
whose lingering humanity would not permit them 
to sell the children of their loins. Others had 
earned tiieir freedom by lionest toil, by acts of 
])atriotism, or by deeds of generous philanthropy, 
the requital of which had been the bestowal of the 
poor measure of liberty tliat the free negro might 
enjoy within the limits of that State. The act to 
vviiich I refer is No. 151 of the acts of the General 
Assembly of the Sfate of Arkansas for the session 
of 1858-59, and may be found on page 175 of the 
])amphlet laws of that session, it was approved 
February 12, 1859, and contains twelve sections. 
Time will not permit me to cite ll:e whole of this 
iniquitous statute; but two sections 1 must give 
entire. Section first is as follows: 

" Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of 
v5)Au7isas, That no i'ree negro or mulatto siiail be periiiilted 
ti> reside witliiii the limits of this State after the 1st dayof 
January, A. ]). Ib60." 

And the tenth section reads thus: 
" Be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for 
any person hereafter to emancipate any slave in this State." 

Could language or rhetoric give force and am- 
plitude to these provisions? The intermediate 
sections provide for the arrest and sale of any free 
negro or mulatto over the age of twenty-one years 
who might be found within the limits of the State 
after the date indicated in the first section, and 
the disposition to be made of the funds arising 
from their sale. As a bribe to the people of the 
seyeral counties of the State to see tiie law faith- 
fully executed, the surplus of each sale, after de- 
ducting the costs, was to be paid into the county 
treasury. They provided also for the hiring of 
those free colored persons who were not twenty- 
one years of age, and for the sale of such of these 
hirelings as might be found within the limits of 
the State thirty days after the expiration of their 
term of service. When it is remembered that, 
by a reversal of the immemorial and universal pre- 
sumption that man is free, it had been provided 
in this and all other slave States that the jtre- 
fiumption that he was a slave arose from the fact 
that any measure of African blood flowed in a 
man's veins, and that it was the duly, not only 
of police and other officers, but of every citizen 
who found a person of African descent at large to 
arrest him and demand the evidence of his free- 
dom, and, in default of the production thereof, to 
cast him into jail, and that for the jail fees thus 
accruing he might be sold, it will be seen how 



impossible it was for these poor and illiterate peo- 
ple to make their exit from that State and through 
those coterminous to it whose laws contained the 
same barl)arous provisions. 

The humanity of the act is embodied in tlie 
eleventh section, which provides for the support 
of "children under the age of seven years who 
have no mothers, and who cannot be put out for 
their food and clothing," and for "the aged and 
infirm negroes and mulattoes who may be as- 
certained to be incapable of leaving the State, or 
cannot be sold after being apprehended." Less 
merciful than Herod, the citizens of Arkansas 
did not slay all these innocent children, but with 
wise regard to the future welfare of the treasury 
of each county, having deprived them of the sup- 
port their natural guardians and fond parents 
could and would have provided them, and having 
torn from the aged and infirm who were incapa- 
ble of leaving the State, and " could not be sold," 
the stout sons or gentle daughters whose years 
v^ould have been gladdened by toiling to sustain 
those weary and aged ones in their declining 
years, they made it the duty of the county courts 
to make provision out of the proceeds of the sale 
of the able-bodied for the support of those who 
they thus robbed of their natural support and 
protection, leaving the aged and infirm to travel 
rapidly toward paupers' graves, and the children 
to be sold into slavery as cupidity might bring 
purchasers to the almshouse. Let men no longer 
speak of the laws of Draco, but say that an 
American State has, in the infernal inhumanity 
of her legislation, exceeded in cruelty the despots 
of all nations and all ages. Had the colored peo- 
ple of Arkansas had the right of suffrage their 
party influence would have saved us the shame 
we feel as we contemplate this page of American 
history. 

The possible repetition of such acts as these by 
the aristocracy of the old States, when they shall 
again be fairly in the Union, is not matter of specu- 
lation. The purpose is already avowed. 1 have 
myself heard it said by men, now professedly 
loyal, that the condition of the negro will be made 
more horrible as freemen than it has ever been 
in slavery, and they havesaid to me, " You know 
that where the laborers are ignorant and power- 
less, as these will be, the will of the employer is 
their supreme law." 

Among the witnesses examined by the freed- 
mcn's inquiry commission was Colonel George 
H. Hanks, of the fifteenth regiment Corps 
d'Afrique, member of the Board of Enrollment, 
and superintendent of negro labor in the depart- 
ment of the Gulf. Colonel Hanks went to Louisi- 
ana as a lieutenant in the twelfth Connecticut 
volunteers, under General Butler, and was ap- 
pointed superintendent of the contrabands under 
General Sherman. His testimony illustrates the 
fitness of the colored people for freedom, and' 
proves the determination of theirold mastei'sthat 
they shall never, by their consent, enjoy it. Thus 
he says: 

"The negroes came in scarred, wounded, and some with 
iron collars round theirni-cks. 1 set thcni at work on aban- 
doned plantations, and on the fortifications. At one time 
we had six thousand live hundred of thi!ni; there was not 
the slightest ditfieulty with tliem. They are more willing 



^v^ 



18 



to work, niicl moro patient tlian any set of limiian beings I 
ever saw. It is true there is a general ilislike to return to 
their old masters; and IlioJe who have remained at home 
are suspicious of Ibul play, and I'eel it to be neees-'ary to 
run awav to test their Ireedoui. This year the dislike lias 
very much lessened ; they begin to I'eel themselves more 
secure, and do not hesitate to return lor wages. 'I'lie ne- 
groes willingty accept tka condVion of labor for their own 
maintenance, ami the musbct for their freedom. 1 kw.w a 
iamily ot' live who were I'ree'd by the voluntary enlislinent 
of one of the boys, lie entered the ranks lor the avowed 
purpose of tViM'in!.' 1"^ family. Ills name was Moore ; he 
was owned by the Alcjssrs. Leeds, iron lounders; they re- 
sided within one of the parislies e.tcepted in the in-.irla- 
ination ot' emancipation. He was the lirst mm to fall at 
Pascagoula. L'pon starling he said to his family 'I know 
I shall fall, but you will be free.' 

" A negro soldier demanded his children at my hands. I 
wanted to teslhisafJ'eclion. Isaid ' they had a good home.' 
He said, ■ Lieutenant, I wanttosend my children to school ; 
my wilvi i~ not alloweil to see them ; I am in your service ; 
1 wear military clothes; I have been in three balth^s; I 
was in the assault ;U I'ort Hudson; I want my children ; 
tliey are i;iy llesli and blood.' " 

Again: 

" The colored people manifest the greatest anxiety to 
educate tiieir children, and they thoroughly appreciate the 
benefits of education. 1 have knovv'ii a family to go with 
two meals a day in order to save lifty cents a week to pay 
an indifferent teacher for their children." 

Aftei- having; spent nearly two years in daily 
intercourse witii the planters in the department 
of the Gulf, Colonel Hanks, in his sworn testi- 
mony, says: 

" AUIiough ihey begin to see that slavery is dead, yet the 
spirit of slavery still lives among them. Many of ihemare 
even more rampant to enslave the negro than over before. 
They make great endeavors to recover what they call thcii 
own'negrocs^ One planter oliered me $5,000 to "return his 
negroes. 'J'hey have evim hired men to steal them from 
my ovt-ii camp" (I'he old spirit still prompting to the old 
crime, which long ago was declared felony by the law of 
nations, if |)erpettated in AlViea.)" * * * * 

'• They yield to tin; idea of freedom only under compulsion. 
They submit to the terms dictated by the Uovernmenl bc- 
eanj'e obliged so to do. Mr. V. U. .Marniillon, one of the 
riehestandmosl extensive sugar planters in the whole val- 
ley of the Mississippi, took the oath of allegiance, but re- 
fused to work his own plantation uuli:ss he could have hii 
ownticarocs returned to iiim. lie had fourteen liundredand 
fifty acres of cane under cultivation; bis whole family of 
plantation hands left him and came to New Orleans, report- 
ing themselves lo me. Among them eonUl be found every 
species of mechanic and artisan. 1 called them up and in- 
formed them that the Government had taken possession ol' 
old master's crop, and that they were needed to take it ■iff, 
and would be paid for their labor. All consented toretuiai; 
but ne.xt morning when the time came for their departure, 
not one would go. One of them said, ' 1 vvillgo anywhere 
else to work, but you may shoot me before I will return lo 
the old plantation.' 1 afterwards asi'ertaiiKul that Marniil- 
lon. whom they called 'Old Cotton Beard,' had boasted in 
the presence of two colored girls, house servants, how he 
would serve them when he once more had them in his 
power. These girls had walked more than thirty miles iu 
the night to bring this information to their friends." 

Colonel Hanks adds: 

"It is undoubtedly true that this year a change for the 
better seems to be taking place. In some parishes the 
letting of plantations lo norihern men has a powerful ef- 
fect. ^ The disposition of the [ilanters, however, toward 
their old slaves, when they consent to hire them, is by no 
means friendly. 1 lold a planier recently that it was the 
express order of General Banks that the negroes should be 
educated. He replied that ' no one should teach his ne- 
groes.' " 

And he further declares it as his deliberate judg- 
ment that — 

"If civil government be established here and military 
rule withdrawn, there is the greatest danger that the negro 
would become subject to some form of serfdom." 



Mr. Commissioner McKaye, in liis invaluable 
pamphlet, to which I iiave already referred, con- 
firms the general correctness of the views of 
Colonel Hanks, and says they were concurred 
in by many other intelligent persons famHiar 
with ihe subject, and that his own personal ob- 
servation fully confirms them, fie says: 

" In a stretch of three hundred miles up and down the 
Mississippi, but one Creole planter was found (there may, 
of course, have been others with whom I did not come in 
contact) who heartily and unreservedly adopted the idea 
of free labor, and honestly carried it out upon his planta- 
tion. And allhongh he d<;clared that, in itself, it was suc- 
cessful inueli bc;yond his expectation, yet. he said, ' my life 
ami thtit of my iamily are rendered very unhappy by llie 
op|io-ition and contumely of my neighbors.' 

" The simple truth is, that the virus of slavery, the lust 
of ownership, in the hearts of these old masters, is as vir- 
ulent and active to-day as it ever was. Many of them ad- 
mit that the oldfinm of slavery is for the present broken up. 
They do not hesitate even to express the opinii>n that the 
experiment of secession is a failure ; but they scoff at the 
idea of freedom for the negro, and repeat the old argument 
of his incapacity to take care of liimself, or to entertain any 
liiglier motive for e.\ertioii tliaii that of the whip. They 
await with impatience the withdrawal of the military au- 
thorities, and the reestablisbment of the civil power of the 
State, to be controlled anil used as hitherto for the main- 
tenance of what to them doubtless appears the paramount 
object of all civil authority, of the State itself, some form of 
the slave system. 

" With slight modilication.the language used recently by 
Judge Humphrey in a speech delivered at a Union meeting 
at Hunlsville, Alabama, seems most aptly to express the 
hopes and purposes of a large pro|)ortion of the old masters 
in the valley of the Mississippi who have consented to 
qualify their loyalty to the Union by taking the oath pre- 
scribed by the President's proclamation of amnesty. After 
advi>ing that .\labama should at once return, to the Union 
hij siiniihj rcscindin" the ordinance of secession, ami after ex- 
jircssing the opinion that tlu! old institution of slavery was 
goiK!, Judge Humphrey says, ' [ believe, in ease of a return 
to the Union, we would receive ■political coijieralion, sons 
to secure the management of that labor by those who were 
slaves. There is really no dijj'ercnce, in viii opinion, tthether 
tee hold them as ahsolnte slaces or obtain their tabor hysomc 
other method. Of course we prefer the old method. But 
that question is not now before us.' " 

To the same effect was the testimony of the late 
Brigadier General James S. Wadswortli, whose 
official tour through the valley of the iVIississippi 
gave him ample means of arriving at an intelli- 
gent judgment: 

"There is one thing that must betaken into account, 
and that is, that there will exist a very strong disposilio.T 
among the masters to control these people and keep tl(ein 
as a subordinate and subjected class. Undouhicdly they 
intend to do that. I think the tendency to establish a sys- 
tem of serfdom is the great danger lo i)e guarded against. 
I talked with a planter in the La Fourciie district, near 
'J'ibadouville ; he said he was not in favor of secession ; 
he avowed his Iioj)e and expectation that slavery would be 
restored there in some form. I said, • If wo went away 
and loft these people now do you suppose you could reduce 
them Jigain to slavery ." lie laughed to scorn the idea that 
they could not. ' What' said I, ' these men who have had 
arms in tlieir liands.'' 'Yes,' lie said ; 'we should take 
the arms away from them, of course."' 

While we confront these facts, li-t me, Mr. 
Speaker, ask of you and the Hou.se whether we 
shall best consult our country's welfare by giving 
to the laboring people of the South the ballot by 
which they may protect themselves, and inspiring 
tlieiTi with the hopes and disciplining them by 
the duties of citizenship, or by predetermining that 
ours shall be a military Government, and that the 
first-born son ofevery northern household shall be 
liable to pass his life in the Army, maintained to 



19 



//^ 



protect tlie aristocratic South ngainst the maddened 
and degraded hiborers wiiom slie oppresses. It is 
wc who are to decide tiiis question; wc who are 
to determine who shallselect delegates to the con- 
ventions that are to frame tiie future constitutions 
of tlie insurgent States; we who are to say w lie the r 
the constitutions whicii they will submit to us 
when asking rcadmission are republican inform, 
as required by the terms of the Constitution of the 
United States; and if we fail here, to our timid- 
ity, arrogance, prejudice, or pride of color will 
bo justly attributable the conversion of our peace- 
ful country into a military Power, and our democ- 
racy into an aristocracy. "We cannot escape 
history." 

Tills is not mere idle fancy. Let us for a mo- 
ment sujipose, not what is alone within the range 
of possibility, but what is within the scope of 
probability; nay, v/hat is almo.st certain to hap- 
pen — that the two hundred and ninety-one thou- 
sand pardoned rebels of South Carolina should 
demand from their Legislature an act reducing to 
apprenticcsliip, serfdom, or other form of slavery, 
the four hundred and twelve thousand colored peo- 
ple of the State, or that they deny them all polit- 
ical rights, tax them without their consent, legis- 
late, not for their welfare, but for their degradation 
and oppression. Composing this unrepresented 
mass would be those who have jjassed through 
GeneralSaxton's schools and learned to read, those 
who by toil have earned the means to purchase 
atsales for taxes, or under the confiscation laws, 
a home and land; and others scarred and war- 
worn in the military or naval service of the coun- 
try, who would hurry to and fro, rallying their 
friends to resist the outrage, and maintain their 
right to life, liberty, and property. Here would 
be the beginning of civil war; war in which wc 
who believe in the doctrine of man's rights, that 
Governmentsare instituted to protect those rights, 
that thoy rest on the consent of the governed, and 
should be overthrown when they infringe those 
rights, would bid the insurgentsGnd-speed. Ah! 
this we might do as men, as individuals; but as 
citizens of the United States what would be our 
duty and how must our power be exercised? Tlie 
minority, though vested with political power, 
fearing the superior force of the majority, would, 
in the name of the State, appeal to us; and, re- 
pugnant as the duty might be, we would owe it 
to the sacred coinpromises of the Constitution to 
yield our |iride, our conscience, our fidelity to 
God and man, and become again the protectors 
of slavery or the pliant instruments for reducing 
the majority of the people of the State into sub- 
jection to the arrogant aristocracy of South Caro- 
lina. In God's name let us, while we can, avert 
such a possibility. Lot us conquer our preju- 
dices. Let us prove that wc are worthy of the 
heritage bequeathed us by our revolutionary sires- 
Let us show the world that, inheriting the spirit 
of our forefathers, we regard liberty as a right so 
universal and a blessing so grand that, while we 
are ready to surrender our all rather than yield 
it, we will guaranty it at whatever cost to the 
poorestchihl that breathes the air of ourcounlry. 

But we owe a provision of this kind to another 
class of citizens than that of which I have been 



speaking. Tlicre are other loyal men than these 
in the South. Andrew Johnson, Horace May- 
nard, William H. Wisencr, sr., John W. Bowen, 
W. G. Brownlow, though not alone in their loy- 
alty, represent but a minority of the white peo- 
ple of Tennessee; and Tliomas J. Durant, and 
Benjamin F. Flanders, and Ruftis Waples, and 
Alfred Jervis have had thousands of adherents 
and coworkers among the whites of Louisiana; 
but they, too, are but a minority of the white peo- 
ple of that State. And as our armies go on con- 
quering, we may learn that even on some hillside 
in South Carolina there have been men whose loy- 
alty to the Union has never yielded. How shall 
these protect themselves in the reconstructed 
Slate? What millennial influence will induce the 
envenomed spirit of the majority of the people by 
whom they will be surrounded to treat them with 
loving-kindness or human justice ? Who willgo 
with them to the polls in their rcsp(^ctive districts? 
Where will they find an unprejudiced judge and 
an impartial jury to vindicate their iiuiocenco when 
falsely accused or maintain their right to charac- 
ter and property? We must remember that it is 
the power and not the spirit of the rebellion we 
are conquering. Time alone shall conquer this. 
The grave, long years hence, will close over those 
who to the last day of their life would, were it in 
their power, overthrow the Government or re- 
venge their supposed v.^rongs upon those who 
aided in sustaining it. The truly loyal white men 
of the insurrectionary districts need ihe sympathy 
and political support of all the loyal people among 
whom they dwell, and unless we give it to them 
we place them as abjectly at the feet of those who 
are now in ariYj.s against us as we do the negro 
whom tlieir oppressors so despise. Icannotcon- 
ceive how the American Congress could write a 
page of history that would so disgrace it in the 
eyes of all posterity as by consenting to close this 
war by surrendering to the unbridled lust and 
power of the conquered traitors of the South, 
those who, through blood, terror, and anguish, 
have been our friends, true to our principles and 
our welfare. To purchase peace by such heart- 
less meanness and so gigantic a barter of princi- 
ple would be unparalleled in baseness in the his- 
tory of mankind. 

This is felt in the South. The black man al- 
ready rejoices in the fact that, if we are guilty of 
so great a crime as this, he will not be alone in 
his suffering; it will not be his prayers or his 
curses only that will penetrate the ear of an 
avenging God against tliose who had thus been 
false to all His teachings and every princifile they 
professed. I find in tiie New Orleans Tribune of 
December 15, 1864, which paper, I may remark, 
is the organ of the proscribed race in Louisiana, 
and is owned and edited and printed daily in the 
French and English language by persons of that 
race, an admirable article in res])onse to the ques- 
tion, " Is there any justice for the black ?" which 
was drawn forth by the acquittal of one Michael 
Gleason, who had been tried for murder. 

The crime was established beyond all peradven- 
ture. It was abundantly proven that the victim, 
Mittie Stephens, a colored boy, had been quietly 
sitting on the guards of the boat, watching the 



20 



rod witti vvhicli lie was fishing, that other boys 
sat near him, when the dofondant came behind 
liim, ItaiiL'd over, and deliberately puslied iiim 
into the water, and folding his arins on his breast 
stood and saw the boy rise thrice to the surface 
and then sink forever; that a colored woman ex- 
claimed, " That is not rigiit," and liio defendant 
answered, "I would do the same to you;" and 
thuswieither rescuing the child nor permitting 
others to do it, coolly and deliberately conimiiled 
murder. There was no dispute as to any of the 
facts of the case. 'I'he New Orleans Era, noti- 
cing the case, says that it establishes the theory 
that " a man may, whenever he has no other way 
of amusing himself, throw a negro boy overboard 
from a steamboat, prevenlany of his friends from 
rescuing the drowning struggler, stand quietly 
looking on while he goes to the bottom to rise no 
more, and be considered ' not guilty' of murder 
or any other crime;" and adds, having evidently 
hoped for better things under freedom than it had 
been used to in the days of slavery, "Tliis is 
almost as enligiilened a verdict as we were accus- 
tomed to in the palmy days of thuggery." 

The colored editor of the Tribune avails him- 
self of the case to point a mor:'.l, and well says: 

"Tlie trial l)y jury is coiisidoieil as tlio salb-giiard of iii- 
iioeence. It has lieeii Couiid that a man indicted lor a 
criminal offense cannot l)i; iinparlially tried and convicted, 
unless by liis own piMMs. liut an ex parte jury is llie worst 
d'all judicial institutions. 

'•The security afl'orded hy the composition of a jury has 
to be of a twolbid character. The jurymen have to repre- 
sent the conununity at large in all its classes and varieties 
ofcomposition. The duty of a jury is as well to vindicate 
innocence and puni.<h crime as to protect the man unduly 
arraigned before I he Court. Justice has to strike the cul- 
prit and avenge the blood of the innocent, as well as to de- 
fend the accused party against undue prejudices. Why 
have we no ri'presentatives in tlie jury.' Are onr lives, 
lienor, and liberties to be left in the Jiands of men who are 
laboring under the most stubborn and narrow prejudico.' 
Is there any protection or justice for us at their hands? It 
is in vain that, in the present instance, the press have so 
Ktrongly supported the right. .• The wrong has been com- 
mitted, ami W(' arc notified that llnne is no redress for us. 

" But for CLCrif Union man in the city the last verdict is a 
warning. In the event — as impossihleas it may appear — that 
rebel rule should temporarily he cstahlished h're, ire can fore- 
sec the fate of the friewls of the Union. Then, there will he 
no more justice, no more protection for them than for the 
hated negro. It will Lc lawful to pursue them in the streets, 
drown I he in, kill them; and no jury will he found to coniicl 
the murderers, l^et the Union men understand the case, 
and look to a complete reform in our laws relating to the 
formation of the jury." 

The fate predicted to the real friends of the 
Union v.'ill be meted to them by the pardoned 
rebels, who will if we permit it rule them in the 
future as assuredly as it would if their military 
power should again possess the city. 

Still comes the question, are these more than 
two fifths of the people of the insurrectionary dis- 
trict lit for citizenship. > Let me reply by a ques- 
tion or two. Is the question of fitness put to the 
foreigner by the judge who administers the oath, 
the taking of which invests him with all the power 
of a native-born citizen and all its promises save 
one, that of tlie Presidency .' Is the v/liite native 
of our soil who, at the close of a reckless youth, 
the victim, perhaps, of early poverty and the deg- 
radation of parents, is unable to read his native 
tongue, wlvn first he comes to the polls to deposit 
his ballot interrogated as to his fitness.' Is it only 



to the wise, the learned, the powerful that we 
accord the right of siifi'rage.' Are there not vyilhin 
the knowledge of each one of us scores of the chil- 
dren of this proscribed race who, in the conduct 
of their daily aflfairs, in the acquisition of prop- 
erty, in the tenderness and good judgment with 
which they rear their families, in the generosity 
with which they contribute to their church and 
the fidelity with which they obey her I'.igh be- 
hests, prove themselves infinitely belter fitted 
for citizenship than the denizens of the swamp, 
Mackerelville, and other such reeking localities, 
who swelled the majority in the city of New York 
at the last election to thirty-seven thousand .' And 
shall no culture, no patriotism, no wisdom , no tax- 
paying power, secure to the native-born Ameri- 
can that which at the end of five years we, v/ilh 
so much advantage to our country, fiingas a boon 
to every foreigner who may escape from the pov- 
erty and oppression and v/rong of the Old World, 
to find a happier home and a more promising 
future in this? Thequestion is not whethereach 
man is fitted for the most judicious performance 
of the functions of citizenship, but whether the 
State is not safer when she binds all her children 
to her by protecting the rights of ali and confid- 
ing her affairs to the arbitrament of their common 
judgment. 

But colored peofile have shown themselves 
abundantly capable of self-government. Under 
oppressions exceeding in infinite degree those 
suffered by the oppressed people of Ireland — ay, 
by the subjects of the Czar of Russia — they have 
shown themselves capable ofcaring for themselves 
and others. Buying the poor privilege of pro- 
viding for themselves by paying to their owners 
hundreds of dollars perannum, thousands of them 
have maintained homes and kept their families 
together, and reared their children to such an age 
that the lordly master, wanting cash for current 
purposes, has plucked the graceful daughter from 
lier home to sell her to a life of debauchery, or the 
son, whose developing muscles promised sup- 
port in age to his parents, to sell liim to a life of 
unrequited toil. Snatched from these horrors a 
few thousands, some ten or twelve, have been sent 
during the last forty years to the western coast of 
Africa. There, under the auspices of American 
benevolence, they founded a republic, and with 
almost American greed for land have extended 
the jurisdiction of the little colony till the re- 
|.ublic of Liberia, as I learn from the National 
Almanac, now embraces twenty-three thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-nine square miles. And 
the people have assimilated from among the hea- 
thens among whom they were settled men, women, 
and children, until their flag protects and their 
jurisdiction regulates four hundred and twenty- 
two thousand, most of whom, taught in the schools 
of the colony, find their enduring hopes in the 
old King James Bible, which they arc able to 
I'eaJ. But for our jealous contempt of the race, 
the flag of that African republic, so extensive has 
her commerce already become, would be familiar 
in all our leading ports. Our arrogance has hith- 
erto excluded it; and by reason of our arrogance 
we pay tribute to our haughty commercial rival 
and treacherous friend Great Britain, by purc-Jias- 



21 



//C^' 



iiig at second-linnd from her the tropical products 
whicli the republicans of Liberia would gladly 
exchange directly with us for those of our more 
temperate region. 

Fit by culture and experience they may not be; 
but let us regard the charncieristics of our civil- 
ization and see whether the future should, by rea- 
son of this fact, bo made liable to such moment- 
ous consequences as woulil be involved in error 
on this point. The abundant iiroof is before us 
of their eagerness and aliility to acquire informa- 
tion. We are equally able to provide them with 
the means of culture; and happily, the good peo- 
ple of the North, carrying the frame of liie school- 
house and the church in the rear of each of our 
advancingarniies, have shown themselves prompt 
to provide them with the means of instruction — 
to give to each and every one of them the keys to 
all knowledge in the mastery of the English laii- 
gusge,tlie artof v/ritiiig,and the elementary rules 
of ariihmetic. 

Though the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Brooks] insists that history is but repeatitig it- 
self, I tell him that ours is a new age, and ask liiin 
to be kind enough to let me know who invented 
Iloe's "last fast printing-press" in the again 
which it first existed, and by whose steam-engine 
it was propelled, and whether he edited the Ex- 
press thatffll in myriad thousands from its revolv- 
ing forms.' The limits of what former America 
did the magnetic telegraph traverse, making man, 
even the humblest, well-nigh omnipresent within 
its limits.' In what antique age and country, 
broad as ours, was distance reduced as it is by the 
locomotive engine in this.' From among the hid- 
den treasures of what buried city, or from the 
printed pages of what lost nation, did John Erics- 
son steal the subtle thoughts with which he has 
blessed the world and which we credit to him as 
inventions.' In v;hat era, will the gentleman tell 
me, did a nation convert by the stroke of a pen 
and the act of occupancy its landless and desti- 
tute people into independent farmers and pillars 
of the State by a homestead law such as that by 
which W(i offer estates to the emigrant and the 
freedman.' If history be but repeating herself, 
will the genllb-man point me to the original of the 
American Missionary Society, and show me from 
experience what influence its labors are to have 
upon those whom we have hitherto doomed to the 
darkness of ignorance .' Whence did the founders 
of the American and other Tract Societies borrow 
the idea of their great enter|irisc.' From what 
age or what clime comes our common school sys- 
tem.' And what chapter of human history did 
they reenacl who founded the American Sunday 
School Union.' Will the gentleman draw from 
his liistoric stores a sketch of the influence that 
institution alone is to have in developing and 
training the intellect and regulating the life of the 
froedmen and the " poor v/hite trash," now that 
rebellion has opened the way to the teacher, the 
daily journal, and the printed volume to their fire- 
sides.' In what ample depository did its ancient 
prototype conceal the stereotype plates for more 
than a thousand books that it so cheaply pub- 
lished, imparting many of them in the simplest 
sentences, and others in those of Bunyan, Milton, 



Heber, Cowper — the poets, preachers, pliiloso- 
phers, historians of all Christian countries — the 
thought and knowledge lime has garnered .' 

No, Mr. Speaker, history is not repeating it- 
self. We are unfolding a new page in national 
life. The past has gone forever. There is no 
abiding present; it flies while wo name it; and, 
as it flies, it is our duty to provide for the thick- 
coming future; and with such agencies as I have 
thus rapidly alluded to, we need not fear that even 
the existing generation of freedmcn will not prove 
themselves abundantly able to take care of them- 
selves and maintain the power and dignity of the 
States of which we shall make them citizens. 

We are to shape the future. We cannot escape 
the duty. And "conciliation, compromise, and 
concession" are not the methods we are to use. 
These, alas! have been abundantly tried, and their 
result has been agitation, strife, war, and desola- 
tion. No man has the right to compromise jus- 
tice; it is immutable; and He whose law it is 
never fails to avenge its compromise or violation. 
Ours is not the worlc of construction, it is that of 
reconstruction; not that of creation, but of regen- 
eration; and, as I have shown, the principle of the 
life we are to shape glares on us, lighting our path- 
way, from every page of history written by our 
revolutionary fathers. Would we see the issue 
of "compromise, concession, and conciliation?" 
Sir, we behold it in the blazing home, the charred 
roof-tree, the desolate hearthside, the surging tide 
of fratricidal war, and the green mounds beneath 
which sleep half a million of the bravest and best 
loved of our men. 

South Carolina, re presenting slavery, demanded 
the insertion of the word " white" in the funda- 
mental articles q/our Government. Our fathers 
resisted the demand; and, as I have suggested, 
had their sons continued to do so, slavery had 
long since been hemmed in as by a wall of fire; 
its true character would have been known among 
men, for then would the freedom of discussion 
not have been assailed, and men been legally pun- 
ished by fine and imprisonment, and lawlessly by 
scourging and death, for speaking of its horrors. 
And by resisting this demand, as I have shown, 
man was accorded his right in the Territories till 
1812. Then our fathers yielded, and without tra- 
cing the rapid retrograde career which ensued, 
we find the re.sults of conceding and compromis- 
ing principle in the attempt to abandon justice as 
established by the fathers, and settle a Territory 
under the conflicting theories of Cass and Doug- 
las, and of Calhoun and Jefierson Davis — the two 
former striving to establish slavery under phrases 
full of professed devotion to freedom; the latter 
proclaiming boldly, through the lips of Robert 
Toombs, that " Congress has no power to limit, 
restrain, or in any manner to impair slavery; 
but, on the contrary, it is bound to protect and 
maintain it in the States where it exists and 
wherever its flag floats and its jurisdiction is para- 
mount." (Boston Address, January, 1856.) 

We can trace the influence of compromise and 
concc.=-'sion again in its effects upon the constitu- 
tion of States. Behold the coloretl and white voters 
mingling peaceably at the polls in North Carolina, 
Maryland, Tennessee, and other slave States, and 



22 



run tlin downward career until, at. the dictation of 
Soutli Carolina and slavery, you find States wliicli 
have become free by constitutional amendment 
and others which never tolerated slavery yielding 
to their demand to insert the word " while" in 
their consiiiuiioiis, atid so crcatinof a proscribed 
class iti their midst; others even denying a dwell- 
ing place upon His footstool within their limits to 
the children of God whose skins were not colored 
like their own; and finally Arkansas wiiting a 
chapter of history which redeems Draco's name 
from the bad [ireiiminencc it had so long borne. 
Trium|ihant wrong is ever aggressive, has ever 
been, will ever be. Look back also upon our 
churches, practically ignoring for half a century 
the existence of nearly four million people who 
were held in contempt of every one of the beati- 
tudes, and compelled to live in violation of every 
clause of the decalogue, and whose existence 
made the utterance of the Lord's prayer seem, to 
foreigners who comprehended the wrongs of sla- 
very, like a hideous mockery as it dropped from 
American lips. 

And these results, be it remembered, did but 
express the influence wliich aristocratic and dic- 
tatorial South Carolina, whose spirit now pos- 
sessed iheentire South, had, through compromise, 
concession, and conciliation, produced upon the 
mind and heart and conscience of the Anu'rican 
people. Let me illustrate this by one striking 
example. While yet INlissouri was a Territory 
— seven years, however, after the South had been 
made imperious by her triumph in inserting the 
word " white" in the territorial law for Missouri, 
and while she Vv-as busy fashioning that great 
State north of the Ohio line into the future home 
for slavery — the abolition of t!it> institution was 
being agitated in Maryland as well as in Tennes- 
see. Notwithstanding the recent triumphs ofsla- 
very it was still possible fur a man to oppose the 
spread of the institution, point out its atrocities, 
and favor its abolitiiin, and yet look for prefer- 
ment and honor at the hands of his fellow-citi- 
zens; and when Jacob Gruber, a Methodist cler- 
gyman, was indicted by the Frederick county 
court, of I\Taryland, on the charge of "attempt- 
ing to excite insubordination and insurrection 
among slaves," Roger B. Taney stepped forth to 
defend him, and in th<! course of his argument 
used the following language: 

'• Mr. Griibor did quote the laiignnge nf our great act of 
national iinlep(.'iKlt'iioe,;uul iiisi.-sted on tlie principles con- 
tained in tliat vencratrd instriiineiit. lie did ri;l)uUe tliosi; 
masier.-i wlm, in the I'xeLcise ol' power, are deaf" to ilm 
calls of liiirnaniiy ; and lie warned tlieni of Uie evils tliey 
iniglit 1)1 inj; liieniselves. lie did spc.ilc with alihoironee of 
those rcptiic^s who live l)y Hading in luinian llesh, and en- 
rich themselves by teaiinj the husband IVoni the wife, llie 
tiifant IVoni ihe bosom of the mother; atui this I am in- 
structed was the head and front of liis ofTendiiig. Shall I 
content inysell with sayiii;; Iin bad a right lo say this? that 
there is no law to punish him? So far is lie from beinytho 
object of punishment in any form of proceedings, that u-c 
are jirepared to mainlain the same jirbiciptc^, ami to tiic, if 
necessanj, the same laii^iiaae here in the temple of jiislice, 
and ill Ihe presence of thos(Mvli<» are the minislorsof the 
law. A hard necessity, indeed, compels lis to endure the 
evils of slavery /c;r « lime. It was imposed u|ion ns by 
aiiotlier n.ation whih^ we were yet in a state of cohinlid 
vassala^ct. It cannot be (iasily or suddenly n'moved. Yet 
while it continues, it is a lilot on our national ckaraclcr, and 
every real lover of iVcedom con(idciilly hopes that it will 



be ctTectually, tliougli it must be cradually, wiped away, 
and earnestly loidcs for the means by which this necessary 
obji!ct inny lie allained. And until it shall be accom- 
plished, until the time shall come when we can point 
without a hlu^li lo the language licdd in the Ueelan.ition of 
Independence, every fri<Mid of humtmity will seek toli^'hteu 
the iiallin-; chain of slavery, and better lo ihe utmost of 
his priwer'the wretched condition of the slave. Siieli was 
Air. Griiber's object in thai part of his sermon of which 1 
am nowspealiin^. 'I'hose who have complained of liitn 
and reproached him will not find it easy to answer liim, 
unless coin|ilaints, reproaches, and perseciuioii shall be 
considered an answer." 

But under the influence of the doctrine of" con- 
ciliation, concession, and compromise," the au- 
thor of this language soon learned that for an 
ambitious man these brave and good words were 
folly and madness. Pure in his personal life, 
beautiful in the relations that characterized his 
family and his social circle, his history will never 
bo forgotten; his name will ever head the list of 
"ermined knaves." Thirty-eight years after the 
Gruber case, in the chief temple of justice of our 
country, in the presence of her ministers, of whom 
he was himself the chief, when speaking of the 
U-ee colored men of New England and those of 
their race throughout the country, he declared, 
in violation of all truth, that — 

"The legislation and liistories of llio times, atid the lan- 
guage used ill the Declaration of Independence, show that 
neither the class of persons who had been imported a.s 
slaves nor their descendants, whether they bad become 
free or not, were then aeknowleilged as a part of the peo- 
ple, nor intended to ho included in the general words used 
in that memorable instrument. 

" It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public 
opinion in lelatiini to that unfortunate race which pre- 
vailed intheeivilizedandi.'uliglifeneilporiionsof the world 
at the lime of the Declaration of Independence, and when 
the Constiintion of the United States was framed and 
adopted. Hut tlie public liistory of every European nation 
displays it in a manner too plain to be inislaken. 

'• ^^'u■y had for more than a century before been regarded 
as beiiiL's of an inferior order, and altogelher unfit to asso- 
ciate with the white race, eiilier in social or political re- 
lations ; and so far inferior, that tkcyhad no rii;lits w/iicli the 
while iiiu-.i. ira:! bound to respect." 

Mr. Speaker, shall we in providing for tlie re- 
construction of the Union, accept and proclaimas 
our faith the hideous dogma that four millions of 
our people have " no rights wliich the white man 
is bound to respect," or,iii the very lioui; in which 
our arms are breaking the power of the rebellion, 
make any concession to the spirit that evoked it.' 
South Carolina may shake her gory locks and 
bloody hands at us in impotent rage; but let us 
not quail before her now as wc have dime for the 
last half century. Through the lips of northern 
"Sons of Libmty" and members of the order of 
"American Knights," she demands that, as a 
graceful concession, we shall comply to-day with 
the proposition our forefathers rejected on llie25lh 
of June, 1778, and insert the word "white" in the 
fundamental law of the land; on the other hand, 
the shades of our patriot fathers, humanily, the 
spirit of the age, the welfare of the nation, the 
hopes of the countless millions who will throng 
our country through the long ages, implore us to 
listen to the voice of justice and obey the injunc- 
tions of the Master, who has assured us that " in- 
asmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 
Let not, 1 pray you, the South achieve liergrand- 
cst triumph in the hour of her humiliation. Let 



//^ 



23 



not the spirit of a prostrate foe practice on our 
pride and prejudice, and exult tlirougli all time 
over a lasting victory. Peace is the offspring and 
handmaid of Justice, and let us in reconstructing 
the Union erect a teniple in whicii siie may abide 
for ever. 

Mr. STILES. Mr. Speaker, t did not desire 
to interrupt my colleague [Mr. KiiLLEy] in tlie 
delivery of his carefully prepared si)eech. It 
would have marred its beauty and power. But 
if I understand him correctly lie stated that prior 
to the adoptioti of the constitution of 18.38, ne- 
groes cnjoypd the right of suffrage in the State of 
Pennsylvania. My question is, whether the con- 
stitution or laws of that State gave them sucli a 
right; and further, whether they ever did exercise 
such a right; whether he does not know that by 
the decision of the highestcourtsof that State they 
were not allowed to vote there. 

Mr. KELLEY. They were allowed by the 
constitution to vote, and they did vote; and it 
required a constitutional amendment — the inser- 
tion of the word " white" in the clause regulating 
suffrage — to deprive them of that right. 

Mr. STILES. I desire to ask my colleague 
further, when ai'id in what portion of the State of 
Pennsylvania they ever exercised that right. 

Mr. KELLEY. Why, I have seen them ex- 
ercise it frequeniryat the polls in Philadelphia, 
and that, too, whether the election officers be- 
longed to one party or the other. 

Mr. SriLES. That must have been confined 
to my colleague's own precinct. It was never 
known in the history of that State. 

Mr. KELLEY. I beg leave to say that it was 
done throughout the Slate, and was in some in- 
stances niiide the subject of litigation. 

Mr. S I'iLES. It was never done except in one 
county — the county of Bucks — so far as I know 
and then only in one instance. 



I desire further to ask my colle£;^ii'' in this con- 
nection, because his speech has tendt-d toward 
universal equality, whether he is in favor of giv- 
ing negroes universally the right of suffrage' now. 

Mr. KELLEY. I am in favor of giving that 
right, ill the words of Jefferson, to "every man 
who fights or pays." I stand by the doctrine of 
Thomas Jefferson, the father of the Democratic 
parly, in which 1 was trainetl. 

Mr. STILES. In the event of the passage of 
the amendment to the Constitution proposed, is 
my colleague in favor of equality between the 
races.' And will he regard negroes as equal to 
the v/liite man .' 

Mr. KELLEY. I could not possibly regulate 
the equality of men. 1 cannot make my colleague 
so moral or intelligent as a man of darker com- 
plexion who is more moral and more intelligent; 
nor could I degrade my colleague to ihe level, in 
morals and intelligence, of the cnlored man who 
is less moral or less intelligent than he. My col- 
league does not, according to his theory, vote by 
reason of his intelligence, but simply by reason 
of his color. I might be willing to exclude from 
the privilege of voting an immor.il or a voluntarily 
ignorant man; but I want no sensiless rule that 
allov/s a fool or a scoundrel to vole if he bi: wiiite, 
and excludes a wise and an honest man if he be 
black. 

Mr. STILES. Mr. Speaker, the remarkable 
speech just delivered appeals to pn.-\si()ii and not 
to judgment, and is in favor of a principle that in 
years hence will be regarded as lln; hfiglil of the 
fanaticism of these days. The right of negroes 
to become voters, jurors, and in ah icsincis equal 
with the white man, is the favorite theory of the 
times and of the parly in power. The day will 
come when the men who avow such |irinciple3 
will be condemned by the popular voice every- 
where. 



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